Hound
by hokkaidomilktea
Summary: Hatake Kakashi was a good shinobi. A bit psychotic, but still smart, skilled, and incredibly unqualified to lead Team 7. Whispers of war and traitors trickling into Konoha's ranks cause Hiruzen to rethink the team placements. A small decision on paper turns into a huge one with consequences he never saw coming.
1. Chapter 1

The clock face reads 4am. A figure materializes from underneath the monotonous sheets and quickly cooling fingers tuck the corners back and folds the top of the grey sheets, revealing a paper thin white sheet, over. A long-sleeved black shirt and black pants quickly cover up a surprisingly bright blue polka dot pair of underwear and matching white bra with a tiny blue ribbon. The cold air that seeped into the room from the eighth-of-a-centimeter gap between the metal door and frame at the bottom quickly defeats the warmth in the bed sheets that her body had carefully cultivated the night before and would've done the same to her clothed body, kneeling as she wraps white tape around her legs from her mid-thigh to ankle, if a slow, meandering, but persistent, flow of warm, thick, and slightly blue chakra wasn't fending off the cold. A gloved hand flexes in relief as the chakra reaches the tips of her slender fingers feel the warmth before those same flexing fingers relax and grab a scroll and place the still-white roll of paper decorated with ink and bits of dried blood and chakra in a pocket. Her feet slip into standard issue shinobi sandals and warmed hands place a hitai-ate in the same pocket as before and cover her face with a porcelain mask.

Along the railing, her slender fingers trail the cold metal, a few stories up. Her obsidian-colored eyes flick over the railing and down to see the new recruits 'training'. Their overseer stood with his hands behind his back, staring at the young children, ranging in age from five to fifteen. A few moments later a sharp yelp comes out from one of the boys and a girl is sitting atop his heaving chest and blood begins to pool underneath his arm. The woman purses her lips and stops watching. She flickers away from the railing and reappears at the bridge where a heavily robed man stands with most of his body weight on his wooden cane.

"Danzo-sama," she intones. "It is early."

He understands what she is implying: that it is rather early to not only be woken up, but also summoned for a mission directly from the Hokage. Danzo has a faint idea of what it is, but not the whole picture. It irks him, but he wasn't a student of the Nidaime for nothing, so he keeps his face stony and calm.

"The Hokage wishes to speak to you," he answers.

"May I ask why?" she questions, not raising her head from her kneeling position with one fist on the ground.

"No," Danzo says, for he doesn't know why. The reminder that Hiruzen was keeping something from him, his trusted advisor, irks him further. Still, he remains calm. She would return and inform him of what Hiruzen wants and come back for an assignment. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, for the past four years and then some time before that, was, is, what happens. It always did. Danzo is absolutely sure of this. No matter what reason Hiruzen may have for suddenly requesting his top agent at an early hour, Danzo is convinced that his top agent will come back and assist Hawk in training the new recruits and assist Monkey in destroying the village where a few rogue assassins from Kumo were drinking and gambling like Konoha was stupid and didn't know where they were and wasn't about to blow them up.

"Go," Danzo says, "And do not forget your assignments today."

"Yes, sir," she says. A frown threatens to pull down the corners of her lips, but she wasn't Danzo's top agent for nothing; keeping a frown from forming was well beneath her level of expertise.

And with that, she disappears in a black blur. The hallways are a maze as she briskly walks through them. Her feet carry her to a familiar door, which her gloved hand grips the knob of. The mere prospect of sunlight makes her heart skip a beat. How long had it been? _Since I saw sunlight?_

The amount of prospects makes her head spin so much so that she places a hand on where her forehead is underneath her porcelain mask and allows a small sigh to escape her. Two words flash in her head: too long. She pulls open the door and her head turns to the only thing that moved in her sight: a boy walking with a steaming pastry in his hand. The scent of the sweet, the _sugar_ , makes her fingers curl and uncurl over and over.

 _Do I want that?_

The answer is no. Sarutobi Hiruzen had summoned her for something that Danzo would either not disclose (a cringe forms under her mask) or was not informed of (her blood chills at that). A gut feeling points to the latter and she closes the door, not turning to watch the door melt into the wall to leave only a small paper with a boring seal that no one noticed stuck to it. Her body is propelled over rooftops and out of the corner of her eye she sees the cemetery with rows of grey graves. A pang of guilt rises up. How long had it been? _Since I replaced the flowers and scrubbed the stone?_ The woman cringes again, too afraid of the number to calculate how long it had been.

Once again, she kneels and Hiruzen leans against the railing, waiting for the sunrise. On the roof, she notices, there is a wonderful view of the still-sleeping Konoha. Her wandering eyes, a wisp of her youth catching her professional mind off guard and sabotaging it easily, do not go unnoticed by the amused Hokage.

"Would you like to watch the sunrise with me?" he asks as a wizened smile lifts up his wrinkled face and makes him look like anyone's grandfather.

"If you would like," she replies. It is not correct to insert any sort of preference in the presence of a superior, especially the leader of a village like the Hokage. She doesn't move from her spot, since he didn't ask her to.

"Come now," Hiruzen says kindly, "You don't have to be so polite. For now, I am not the Hokage and you are not my subordinate. We are shinobi, seeing eye to eye. Would you like to watch the sunrise with me?"

 _Yes. I haven't seen sunlight in Kami knows how long._

"If you would like," she says again. It is not correct to impose preference when an elder is around. She was in her twenties and he was nearly seventy.

Hiruzen sighs, clearly in annoyance. The smile fades from his face and a few tense moments pass before a group of regular Jounin come up from the stairwell, chatting like close school friends after class let out. She doesn't turn around, since he didn't ask her to.

"Would you like to watch the sunrise with me?" Hiruzen calls out to the Jounin.

"Sure," their replies are easy-going, like water flowing.

"Now," he looks right at her, "Would _you_ like to watch the sunrise?"

Her face heats up and something is caught in her throat. Not only Hiruzen's eyes, but also all of the other Jounin's eyes, glue to her. The answer is clear and she knows that this is an order, but just a funny and cynical way of placing it because saying no would only make him make her stay and watch. She would watch, but Hiruzen decided to play a mind game.

It works.

"Yes, sir," her reply is stony and neutral.

"Very well," he smiles, clearly forcing himself, "You have my permission to take off your mask."

Another game. She inwardly bristles at it. _In front of all these people?_ The answer is clear, too clear, and she bristles more at it and the implications and wants to gouge out the Jounins' eyes.

Calm.

She calms herself and wordlessly takes off her mask and clips it to her belt. She doesn't turn around, choosing to just look at the ground before her. She feels childish and embarrassed and wants to run away, to flicker away, and return to the dark corridors without sunlight and Danzo's orders. It is comforting and the routine is simple and the same day in and day out, unlike this ridiculous sunrise-watching event that the Hokage had quickly turned into a party. _No one has seen my face in a long time. I had intended to keep it that way, but…_

One kunoichi squats at the grey-clad shinobi's side and peers at her face and eyes the white scar on her neck. To her horror, recognition lights up the kunoichi's face.

 _Run!_

But that is impossible.

"How unyouthful!" a man pulls the shinobi up in a tight side hug and her entire body goes downright rigid. The color drains from her face and her reflexes finally kick in and the green man is sent flying, skipping like a stone across the surface of a lake, on the roof. Another kunoichi, scantily dressed, pokes the dazed Gai while a smoking Asuma cautiously places a reassuring hand on the ANBU's shoulder and almost says some comforting words that would've gone something along the lines of: 'Calm down. Don't you remember me?' if she hadn't grabbed him and thrown him on the ground and kicked his vulnerable stomach in pure fear, exacerbated by anxiety and misunderstanding.

"Hey," a sharp voice cut into another to-be kick aimed at Asuma's head. Strong hands grab her and physically hold her back and his warmer chakra flows into her system and a wave of calm crashes over her. Fatigue from sleeping only an hour or two and near-chronic chakra depletion made him the only thing holding her up. Kakashi tucks his book away. "We're not trying to hurt you. Just watch the sunrise."

From former ANBU to current ANBU, he understood the discomfort she felt. Here, orders weren't direct and hardly black and white and having people not only without masks but also without the strict formalities around and blurring of superior-subordinate lines coloring the air, it was no wonder that she'd reacted so violently. It was clear to Kakashi that she hadn't been around normal people for a long time. So, giving her an order of 'watch the sunrise' made her a bit more at ease since orders had been all she was fed for quite some time.

 _Thank you._ She looked up at him and was astonished to see Kakashi. She stepped back and her face _almost_ deepens in color when she saw the scandalized looks of the other Jounin. Shame made her look away again and Kakashi didn't pat her shoulder like Asuma did. No ANBU did that and she was still in the ANBU mindset and might just end up electrocuting him if he did that.

Touchy, very touchy.

Kakashi understood better than any of the others. "Give her a little space. She'll calm down after a while."

"What's your name?" Anko asks nearly immediately. Kakashi sighs in dismay. Hadn't he just said to give her space? Did Anko have a death wish?

"Hound," she replies in a neutral tone.

Anko groans, "Like, the one your parents gave you."

The ANBU narrows her obsidian eyes, "What is your clearance level?"

"Who gives a damn?" Anko challenges.

"Anko," Kakashi intervenes, "What did I just say?"

"She isn't going to calm down by herself, so we need to take action and make her warm up to us," Anko says, "Watching the sunrise is supposed to be a happy thing that isn't bogged down by some cold ANBU."

"How many years have you been in ANBU?" Kakashi queries. Anko squawks at his hypocrisy. _Hadn't he just fucking said to leave her alone? So he can ask stupid questions and I can't? Just who the fuck do either of them think they are?_

"Four," the ANBU replies. "Almost five."

Genma whistles, "ANBU's some black hole, huh? Must've sucked away all of your emotions to make you react so violently towards an emotion radiating Gai."

"I think she's in Black Ops," Ao says quietly.

 _Finally._ The sun begins to rise. Relief washes over the ANBU and Kakashi is heart warmed to see life glimmer, if only for a moment, in her eyes. It fades just as quickly as it comes, but it existed and that was what counted. Hiruzen coughs and brings the group to attention, silently thanking Kurenai with a nod for hauling up his son.

"I didn't exactly bring all of you to watch the sunrise with me this morning, but I will admit that it is a nice reunion," Hiruzen's eyes twinkle with amusement at the ANBU. She doesn't react, but he doesn't expect her to, "There is a more serious matter to be dealt with. All of you are high-level Jounin, if not Elite Jounin or Tokubetsu Jounin. All of you have proved your loyalty to Konohagakure and as such, I trust all of you with my life. You all are not the suspects, but there are spies within our ranks, particularly within the high-Chuunin and low-Jounin ranks. My student Jiraiya, the village's top espionage and recon specialist, came back a few days ago with chilling news. He has found an organization called the 'Akatsuki' whose members are comprised completely of S-Rank rogue shinobi, including our own Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Shisui and formerly Orochimaru."

The Jounin shifted at the mention of the Uchiha killers and Anko bristles angrily at the mention of her old sensei.

"Why have S-Rank criminals gathered?" the ANBU asked. "Where have they last been spotted?"

Hiruzen taps out the used-up tobacco leaves on the rail and watches them sail down until they hit the ground and are swept up by a gust of wind, "They have been gathering information on bijuu. Jiraiya believes that they intend to collect and extract the bijuu, which will kill the bijuu's host. I doubt that this is a coincidence, but Orochimaru has also gathered information regarding the bijuu and Konoha's past and present kekkei genkai. A few months ago, Jiraiya discovered the Akatsuki's apparent hideout in the Land of Tea, but it was deserted with nothing truly substantial besides a few Konoha kunai and bingo books lying around. Around the same time, Orochimaru's hideout was also discovered underneath a tavern in the middle of a forest at the edge of our border with the Land of Earth."

"That damn snake bastard…" Anko mutters, her eyes burning with hate.

"They knew Jiraiya and the few ANBU teams I'd sent out were coming and quickly left with only bits and pieces of information, perhaps taunting us. They most likely have spies posted day and night, watching the village. This is a serious breach of security, level 5—"

A few eyes widened at that.

"—so, if you do find any suspects of spying, turn them into Hound, Anko, or Ao," Hiruzen says.

"Yes, Hokage-sama," the Jounin reply in serious tones.

"Is that all, Hokage-sama?" the ANBU asks. The look on Hiruzen's face already tells her the answer, but it was obvious that not all of the Jounin had noticed, or knew how to read faces.

"No," he says with a sigh, "Kumo and Iwa have recently opened up trade with one another after twenty long years of bitter hatred for one another. In wake of both villages' growing economy and healing financial statuses, they have expanded their military greatly and are carrying out military exercises more and more frequently. Not only are they attempting to make grabs Suna's stake at the international mineral deposit in the Land of Iron for the raw weapons materials, but they are trying to take over Konoha's stake as well. Without the materials to create kunai and other weapons, we cannot fight if they intend to make their obvious threats reality and spark a war."

The mention of war makes a shudder in all of the Jounin standing before their Kage nearly tangible. Even the ANBU winced ever so slightly at the notion. War? Again? It has only been half of the time that elapsed between the First and Second Wars: twenty years. It has been just a decade but the deep crying and painful color of red blood still burns within every Jounin and Chuunin who fought.

"Watching a sunrise means another day has come and symbolizes hope, for the tree cannot grow without it," Hiruzen says, "Yet, this is not the only reason I had summoned all of you. War must be prevented at all costs and there is still time to work this out diplomatically. Hound," his brown eyes flick over to her obsidian ones, "I am trusting at least you with this," he looks at the other Jounin, "Sending one shinobi may hint at a struggling economy. At least one more must go."

"I'll go," Kakashi is the first to step forward, determination in his eyes. There is no way his comrades, whose hearts beat right next to him, will die.

"So will I," Gai says seriously.

"In addition," Hiruzen says, "Do not speak of anything I have said and what will happen today to anyone," his eyes are dead serious, "The head of the hospital has also voiced a wish to accompany you. She is waiting by the gates. I expect the four of you to be back in two weeks, at the most. Suna's representative is already awaiting your arrival in the Land of Iron. This is an Unclassified mission, so good luck."

"Yes, sir."

And with that, the two Jounin and one ANBU flicker away.

* * *

Hound doesn't immediately notice Danzo arriving at her door. With a fluid motion, she places clothes on a few matrixes, including a pair of bright pink polka dotted underwear that he wishes he never, ever saw, and seals them away with a bit of chakra. Her scroll is replaced in her pocket and she drops to one knee with her head bowed after noticing the man. Her mask hides her shame at not noticing, but he was the Konoha's best at concealing his chakra until no one could ever detect him. Mentally, she pins that fact up to his clan, the Shimura clan, was highly skilled in chakra control and even though he is the last one left, he certainly makes his ancestors proud.

"Forgive me, Danzo-sama," she says flatly.

He grits his teeth, but annoyance doesn't rise to his eyes, "What are the details of your mission," he nearly spits out the last part, "that you blatantly neglected to report to me the moment you returned?"

Hound replies, but anger makes his bones rattle, "I'm afraid I'm unable to say."

"Why?" he demands. Danzo is beyond irked. Hiruzen…the man the Nidaime had entrusted him to advise, was keeping secrets from him? The implications and obvious danger to village safety makes his blood boil. Nidaime was a shortsighted man, Danzo decides. He thought only of Hiruzen's pacifist ideals in a time of bloody war and not of the long-term, which Danzo could've and would've delivered. Rage courses through the war hawk and the ANBU before him does not flinch in the face of an irate shinobi with the ability to kill her instantly without drawing a drop of blood.

"Hokage-sama wished for the information discussed to be private," she explains, simply going through the motions. She knows that Danzo knew what she had implied and understands his anger. He'd earned her respect long ago, having proved himself in every drop of blood that he spilled that every life ended was meaningful, for it was for the safety of the village. She knows that Danzo is Hiruzen's advisor and withholding information from the one man who'd lost his clan, his wife, his son, and cut off all of his friends, the one and only man willing to risk _everything_ , for the sake of his village is unwise. _Hell, Hokage-sama is trying to kill everyone._ It is not correct to advise when her voice is not credible and unnecessary, but if she were Hiruzen, she would at least tell him.

"Can I even ask how long?" anger seeps into his voice and he isn't even ashamed. He trusts her and only her with his life and his secrets and knows she won't tell anyone of his lack of control.

She contemplates this for a moment, "I'm afraid not. However, I will say this: it will not be for very long."

Danzo recalls the clothing she packed, consisting of a large ratio of warm and thick clothes, "Here," he tosses her a scroll.

"May I ask what is contained?" she asks formally and catches it deftly.

"It will keep you warm with a minimal use of chakra in a snowy place," he says. Hound understands his straightforward logic: the items are to help minimize chakra use. Since Hiruzen had sent the ANBU Black Ops' top agent, he anticipates fighting, in which she must win, meaning that she must utilize all her chakra. Danzo intends to help her with chakra management.

"Thank you, Danzo-sama," she inclines her head until his feet are out of view.

"I expect you to work twice as hard when you return," he says, "Which includes training or eliminating all of the new recruits without Hawk and performing all of Monkey's assassination missions for the entire month."

"Yes, Danzo-sama," she says.

"You are dismissed," he says and she flickers away. Her heart races in her chest and her ears ring with his anger. Fear wasn't the right word, but she settles with it. She calms down slightly when she sees Kakashi, the only one who understood what it meant to be an ANBU. Next to him Rin is wearing her Jounin vest and looks at the ANBU in wonder. The medic had never truly seen one of Konoha's Black Ops up close and is mesmerized by the intricate porcelain mask and messy, unkempt hair.

As they travel over branches, Gai attempts to strike up a conversation with the stoic ANBU who'd assaulted him earlier. "My name is Maito Gai!"

The ANBU doesn't respond.

"Gai," Kakashi groans, "I _hate_ repeating myself."

"My name was Kosari," the ANBU suddenly says. Her obsidian eyes are visible at Kakashi's angle and he sees her form two crescents in a smile at him. He is stunned to silence.

"Kosari, then?" Gai grins, "Nice to meet you!"

"Yes," Hound replies.

"What division in ANBU do you serve?" Gai asks, "Kakashi used to serve in assassinations."

"Recently, ANBU configuration changed. To put a shinobi's skillset, which is not solely limited to one specialty, to better use for the village, as an ANBU rises in rank he serves at least two divisions. As for myself, I serve in many divisions, such as recruit initiation and training and assassination," she said in a formal tone.

Gai briefly recalls seeing Kakashi ruthlessly kill on his assassination mission, out of pure coincidence. The scary dark look in Kakashi's eyes, the rage and hate and grief, made him cringe a little. The ANBU before him looked a lot like Kakashi when she had her mask off, and he supposes that she might make the same face that Kakashi made.

Rin eyes the white scar on the woman's neck that ran from behind her ear and stopped at the hem of her shirt. The ANBU gave her a sideways glance, sensing the woman openly staring.

A few days passed until the forest stopped and snow crunched under the Jounins' feet. Despite the ANBU's cold exterior, Gai remains unfazed and keeps the questions coming, "So, do you have a love life?"  
"Having such a thing is strictly prohibited," Hound replies back tonelessly.

"What about Kakashi? Doesn't his mask intrigue you?" Gai grins. Hound sees through him easily. Gai wants to have her help him see under Kakashi's mask. _You mean 'you', idiot._

"No," the ANBU says, a hint of disgust barely concealed.

"You can take off your mask," Rin said, leaning against a tree and warming her hands by the fire under the starry sky.

The ANBU finds herself in quite a predicament. Superior-subordinate and age lines clashes and somehow, she's overlooked who would be superior in rank, in importance, between herself, the Black Ops' top agent, and the head of the hospital, the top medic in the village. If it were anyone else, the ANBU would've declined. _Is this an order…or just another game?_ The ANBU is unsure. She knows that she's at least a few months older than the medic, but superior-subordinate lines supersede age lines.

… _right?_

"Take it off," Kakashi says nonchalantly, his nose stuck in his book.

The ANBU complies with the order, feeling ashamed that Kakashi had to help her once more. A thought pops up in her mind: leaving ANBU. _Then the games and confusion and pitiful shame will end._ The ANBU destroys the idea. ANBU is something she needs. _I need it._ It is the only thing, in a world of pure chaos that provides stability. Rules and regulations, however tedious she once thought they were, are what is truly important.

The woman's glinting silver hair and obsidian eyes take Rin aback and she looks at Kakashi and then back at the ANBU and can't help but see the resemblance, "Kakashi…Kosari-chan…"

"Hm?" Kakashi pretends not to notice her astonished face. "What?"

"A-are you two…" Rin furrows her brows. Had Kakashi had family? Had he had a sibling? She can't remember and curses herself for it. The ANBU's face is carefully blank as she stares up at the sky with her arms folded behind her head and one leg bent, giving her an air of indifference.

Kakashi waits for his former teammate to gather her words.

"Siblings?" Rin finally says.

Kakashi looks over at her slowly, "Yes."

"How come I never knew?" Rin demands suddenly.

The Hatake man shrugs, "Never thought it was all that important."

Rin's head whips around to the ANBU, who is completely unfazed, _or looks unfazed,_ she reminds herself, by Kakashi's harsh remark.

"Besides, if the enemy knew that the Copy Ninja had any remaining family, what do you think would happen?" Kakashi asks her seriously, "One Hatake is enough to scare off Iwa and Kumo and Kiri."

Rin knows, deep down, that he's right. _But that doesn't mean I necessarily agree._ She frowns and stares into the fire. She closes her eyes in concentration, of what to say to that, but ends up waking up after the Gai shakes her awake. The medic flinches slightly before relaxing.

"It's not far," Kakashi says, "Come on, Rin."

Samurai, not uncommon in the Land of Iron, guard the tall wooden gates underneath a sign reading 'International Mineral Deposit'. The three Jounin and one masked ANBU continue towards the gates, pushing through the looks of skepticism and scorn from mostly Iwa shinobi who don't recognize Kakashi at first.

"State your names and purpose," the samurai says and narrows his eyes behind his mask. Gai looks around, a little confused. _I don't sense a lot of samurai. Understaffing?_

"We are Konoha shinobi. This is Nohara Rin, Maito Gai, Hatake Kakashi, and I am Hound," the ANBU steps forward, "We have come to confirm that Konoha's treaty with the other villages to share this neutral land's resources are being respected."

The samurai shifts slightly and turns to the other samurai and gives a minute nod and opens the gates. The gates reveal a large pool that stretches on and on and on, blacker than night from the iron deposits at the bottom, with a few yellowing reeds growing sparsely around the edge. Hound's eyes flick over to it briefly, seeing a glint from the sun reflecting off of…she looks closer. _Fish? In such iron-rich waters?_ She sees another fish floating on the surface, dead. Past the pool is a few buildings, one of which that glows red and that surrounding buildings, somewhat dilapidated, tuck away from the large central building with the character for 'iron' written thickly in paint. The four walk, ignoring the sneers from the Iwa shinobi milling about.

One shinobi has the audacity to grab the ANBU's hair. Kakashi nearly slices his arm off, getting quite tired of the sneers and glares and _looks_ that he and his comrades were being given, but the ANBU stops him. In a motion that Rin can barely see, the Iwa shinobi is thrashed, loses a tooth, and thrown several feet away from the shinobi. A few moments pass and a mild electrical shock renders him conscious, but moaning and howling in pain. The ANBU turns on a heel and continues towards the building. She bursts through the doors and glances up at the surprised receptionist through her mask, "We would like to speak to the daimyo."  
"I-I'm afraid he's in a meeting with Iwa and Kumo and Suna and other shinobi," the receptionist says, a bead of sweat running down her cheek.

"Which way?" the ANBU demands and her voice holds no room for 'no'.

"T-to your right…at the end of the hallway," the woman says nervously and in a sigh of relief watches the shinobi flicker over.

The doors burst open and the daimyo frowns slightly. The ANBU drops to both knees, "Please forgive our interruption."

"But we're here to discuss our treaty," Kakashi says.

"I was just in the middle of discussing such a thing with your shinobi counterparts," the daimyo says in a cryptic voice, "Take a seat."

The Konoha shinobi comply and Rin glances around at the two Iwa shinobi, one Suna shinobi, and four Kumo shinobi. The daimyo takes an exceptionally long sip of tea before looking accusingly at the Konoha shinobi, "What good timing. I was getting tired. All of you: leave. We will resume our pointless talks later. For now, my servants will show you to quarters I have prepared. Fighting is prohibited in the Land of Iron, especially here in an internationally shared area. Any fighting will result in the immediate termination of your contract and the privilege of getting iron from this deposit ever again. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir," a murmur throughout the room sounds.

"Dinner is in one hour. I expect," the daimyo looks disdainfully at the ANBU garb, "Better attire for dinner. Dismissed."

A snicker ripples through the other shinobi and Rin sends them a dark glare. Someone mutters something about 'ooh, scary kunoichi' but they leave before Rin can identify and throttle them. The Konoha shinobi are led to their room with four futons that lay over pristine tatami mats. The shinobi change into more formal attire and Rin is floored by Kosari's transformation.

Here, Rin had thought that Kakashi and Gai looked dashing in dark blue yukata with black stitching of reeds on the hems, but Kosari wears a dark blue kimono without long sleeves, in matching color with Kakashi's, but with a glowing river that wound its way around her back, over her shoulder, and down to her ankles. Small red flowers grew on the thick reeds that sprouted at the banks. The wide cloth at her waist is in sharp color contrast with the dark blue: it's a red background with thin lines of yellow thread outlining a series of puffy white, red, and orange flowers with dark green-grey leaves adorning the flowers sparsely. Pure white toe socks are slipped over her feet and she holds a pair of formal wooden shoes. Kosari had applied minimal makeup, simply making her face a few shades lighter since she was a shade darker than Kakashi, and pale pink coloring to her lips. The dark circles around her eyes were gone after applying a liberal amount of makeup. Her hair was washed and free of the dark matter that Rin had a feeling was blood, brushed, dried, and pulled back in a loose bun.

Gai frowns, "Where did…Kosari go?"

Kosari tugs uncomfortably at the necklace around her neck. Pearls, pure white, catch the light and glimmer as if they were still in the ocean. "I am right here, Maito-san."

"Y-you! You have Kosari's voice! Where is she?!" Gai grips her with a concerning amount of force.

"Let go," Kakashi says, closing his book and standing to leave, "You're holding Kosari."

"What?" Gai looks at his Eternal Rival with confusion, "But…"

"We cannot be late," Kosari pushes him away and slips on her shoes at the doorway and begins to walk slowly towards the dining hall. Rin looks at her own clothes, a simple smart suit that matches the two purple rectangles on her face under her lab coat and low slick black heels. Kosari takes a step too hastily and trips and begins to tumble towards the ground. Rin catches her with a worried expression.

The ANBU gives her an ANBU smile, "I am fine."

Rin has an inkling that Kosari is absolutely not fine, but Kakashi opens the door to the dining hall that is silent enough that the drop of a pin would be deafening, but so thick with a tense and heated atmosphere that even Kakashi is having a hard time remaining calm and collected.

At the corner of the table, right across from the seats that the Konoha shinobi take, are several silver-haired men wearing suits and blue ties, glancing at Kakashi and Kosari every so often and murmuring. Out of sheer boredom and after Rin snatches his lovely book away, Kakashi decides to eavesdrop on the people across the table. To his surprise, he understands not a single word of what they say. _Perhaps a code?_

"Good," the daimyo appears out of nowhere, "This is an international meeting, a peaceful one, so it makes no sense to me for you all to have come wearing your country's respective clothing, especially if you have come to represent your country in words already."

The doors at the back burst open and servants come out with cart after cart of food. Chicken, beef, pork, fish, and duck are braised, fried, steamed, and boiled in various seasonings along with seasonal vegetables. Within half an hour, the food is gone; flesh picked from all the bones until they sparkle white and not even a morsel of vegetable is to be spoken of. Desert in the form of fruit is served and that, too, is devoured.

Only then does one speak up, "The fish was dry and under seasoned."

Everyone's heads whip to the source of overindulgence and disrespect to a boy, around ten, with a scowl and his arms crossed. His black eyes and messy slightly curly black hair glare at his plate with a fish nearly untouched. The daimyo looks at the child carefully, "And who are you?"

"I am Korohi, from Kumogakure," the boy says sharply. "After coming all this way, I would've expected better from you, daimyo _-sama_ ," his voice drips with sarcasm at the honorific, "After all, part of this international deal with the five countries is that you get half of the profit from all weapons sales like kunai or shuriken. You're swimming in money, drowning even, but," the boy stabs the fish with a deep black kunai and the plate breaks in two neat halves, "It seems your fish are high and dry."

The boy sighs with a small smile, "Perhaps it's because of this ugly cesspool that you've gotten all of the nations to kiss your ass? I saw a fish that looked like this one swimming about in those murky and metallic waters. Are you feeding us poisonous fish?" a gleam that Kakashi does _not_ like shines in his black eyes, "You're too easy to read, daimyo-sama. You wanted to feed us poisonous fish, killing at least one of us who ate too much, and have their respective village blame the other villages for killing one of their own. War would eventually break out since all these Kage are too proud and you'd make even more money from the sudden demand for materials for smiths to make kunai and shuriken and such from. Well, maybe you do need the money. You only had five samurai at the main gates and two at the other eastern gate. As to why you need money if you somehow aren't making enough of a profit from all of your, how shall I put this, _benefactors_ , is beyond me. And, I don't care. Come clean, and I won't slice that shortsighted head of yours off," the boy smiles and makes two crescents with his eyes at the daimyo.

Hound stands up, "Daimyo-sama, is this true? If it is, this is a violation of your contract with all five nations. Please," she smiles sweetly at him and his traitorous heart skips a beat at the young woman, "speak up."

"N-no, of course not!" the daimyo insists.

"Then why is your heart rate increasing?" Rin asks and narrows her eyes.

"It isn't!" the daimyo cries, feeling the aura of killer intent growing in the room from the various shinobi.

Hound materializes in front of him, slams him against the wall, grips his collar in one hand, and feels his pulse with the other, "I'd trust Konoha's top medic, Nohara Rin, who saved countless lives on the battlefield, including Hatake Kakashi, the famous Copy Ninja behind me. Please don't lie, daimyo-sama. I promise I'll protect you from Korohi-san if you just tell me," she says in a low voice.

"Y-you will?" he asks, his face heating up despite the slow tightening around his neck.

"Of course," she says and bats her eyelashes, "Anything for you, daimyo-sama."

The man tries to suppress a sick grin and fails. Kakashi quietly gnashes his teeth as angry lightning is just beneath the surface of his hands, itching to kill the man.

"Yeah, the fish, they were from the iron deposits," the daimyo admits, "There…I said it. You said you'd do _anything_ for me, so meet me tonight, alone…"

Kosari's smile fades and in a clear voice states, "Daimyo of the Land of Iron, for the attempted murder of international representatives of the five shinobi countries and violation of your contract with countries therein, are formally sentenced to death by evisceration."

"H-hey, e-evisceration?!" the daimyo begins to scream and thrash, but remains futilely pinned to the wall with her single, smooth, light arm.

"Yes, daimyo-sama," she says formally, "As an ANBU, we do not acknowledge last words as valid," and the moment her words leave her mouth, the man is stabbed and sliced several times in the stomach and he can only scream in indescribable pain and horror. His eyes bug out of his face when he sees his intestines freely hanging out of his now open and heavily bleeding abdomen cavity. Her arms arc and he is sliced in half before she finally runs a kunai through his neck, destroying his larynx and ability to breathe.

Ironically, the last thing he tastes after coughing and blood gurgling from his mouth is the iron from her kunai.

Blood had spurted across nearly the entire room and the ANBU is covered in it. Pure calm exudes from the woman who'd just killed a dignitary and she turns around to look at her fellow shinobi, not just her own Konoha shinobi.

"Now, who ate the fish?" she asks slowly. The odd faces she is being given by the other shinobi baffle Hound. Some eyes are wide, some eyes are narrowed, some brows are furrowed, some brows are raised, and a few, particularly the Iwa shinobi who'd felt her hair earlier, take a few steps back. Hound repeats herself, "Who ate the fish? Please hurry and speak up; you have a short time until treatment is useless and you die of iron poisoning. I cannot take responsibility if war breaks out. If it does, I would hate to see any of you as my enemy," Hound bows deeply.

"I did," a Suna shinobi says.

"So did I," an Iwa shinobi quivers.

"Me too," a Kumo shinobi says.

"Nohara-san, please start treatment immediately," Hound says, "The rest of you please return to your rooms. Diplomatic discussions will be delayed until notice of the daimyo's demise reaches our respective Kage, however."

The shinobi, shaken and shocked by Hound's lack of hesitation and pure control during the execution of the daimyo, leave as quickly as they can and clamber and nearly stampede one another to get away from the Konoha assassin. Gai shifts over to Kakashi, who kneels by Rin and offers her chakra to help speed up the extraction and healing processes. He doesn't look at Kakashi's sister and a bead of sweat runs down his face. _Scarier than when I saw Kakashi on his mission…I felt no paralyzing killer intent from her but I couldn't move or look away when she killed the daimyo. And…why didn't Kakashi stop her? He could've simply been put to trial, especially with the numerous witnesses to his confession._

The ANBU sheds her kimono and reveals a simple black turtleneck and black pants. She shoves her pearl necklace in her pocket and ties her Konoha hitai-ate loosely around her neck. She winces slightly, feeling someone staring at her. Her eyes slide over to the doorway and sees Korohi leaning against the wall with one leg bent and his arms crossed. He eyes Rin for a moment. Then he gazes at the ANBU warily with grudging respect, "And here I thought all Konoha shinobi were weak."

The ANBU says nothing. It's Konoha's strategy, after all. Underestimation is an invaluable tool. The boy didn't ask a question, so she has no answer. The boy makes a face, as if annoyed she didn't respond.  
"And you're not. How come?" he asks impatiently.

"Are you asking why Konoha shinobi defy the preconception of weakness, or are you asking about how your assumption that Konoha shinobi are weak was incorrect?" she responds. Normally, under any other circumstances, she would ignore a subordinate, especially one from a different village, but he was a great help in making sure she wasn't attacked or berated for killing the daimyo. He saved her time and energy and she was grateful. As thanks, he deserves an answer to his query to an older and much more experienced shinobi.

"No," he says, his scowl lessening a bit at her reply and she can see respect, a tiny flicker, blossoming, "I'm asking about _you._ How are you not weak, unlike your oblivious fellow Konoha shinobi?"

Hound looks up at the ceiling for a moment, "I'm an Elite Jounin, among other things. The higher in rank you get, the more you are forced to sacrifice. Being able to hold yourself together and cherish your remaining precious things even after your most precious things are taken before you can blink or cry is my answer. Still," she looks at him with an unreadable expression, "I wouldn't expect you to understand loss yet. You're still quite young; only nine, or ten, correct?"

"I'll be ten in December, two months away," he says.

Hound nods, "A Genin like you should prepare to lose someone you care about, though. It's inevitable, especially with the Chuunin Exams coming in a little over a year."

Korohi's eyes widen, "How did you know I was a Genin?"

Hound would've smiled and chuckled and patted his head if he didn't strike her as a serious boy. _Kumo shinobi through and through, I suppose._ Instead, she keeps a straight face, but her eyes soften sadly, "I saw your hitai-ate in your pocket. That, and the kunai you used, a darker and more iron-concentrated kunai for better electrical conduction to compliment the higher incidence of raiton shinobi in the Land of Lightning, is of Kumogakure origin," she pulls out her own Konoha kunai, "Look closely," she holds one kunai in each hand, "This lighter colored one is made of two metals, iron and steel, for better conduction of heat for katon jutsu in the Land of Fire. And yours," she allows an electrical current to flow through both of them, "Allows for my chakra to be better conducted, as you can observe from the way it is more evenly distributed throughout the metal, instead of the concentration at the hilt and one side of the kunai."

And she is right. Her lightning is evenly being released from the entire surface of the Kumo kunai, rather than her own Konoha kunai. The boy looks at the kunai in wonder before a frown appears on his face, "Where did you get that Kumo kunai?"

"Your holster," she replies.

"When?" he demands, his frown growing deeper.

"When you were looking at Nohara-san," Hound says. _As a Genin, you should pay more attention when shinobi, especially foreign ones, are around you. At this rate, you'll lose everyone you care about before you even reach the Exams._

The boy scowls deeply at her and turns away from her with a 'hmph'.

"For your lack of awareness, I will be keeping this kunai," Hound says, keeping a smile from her face. _This…warmness in my chest…why do I feel this?_

"What?" the boy cries and his face dons a look of scandal. "No way! Give it back!" Korohi makes a grab for the kunai in her hand, but she simply sidesteps, too quickly for him to see. He whirls around with a leg raised for a roundhouse kick, but she simply ducks under him and pokes him roughly in the stomach. Shocked, he stops and clutches his soft flesh with a wince and falls on his behind. His face burns red with humiliation and he glares harshly at her.

"Well, you can have my kunai. From the chakra residue on this, I can faintly sense that you have a katon affinity," she holds the Kumo kunai in her hand delicately, "Which would be better complimented by a Konoha kunai. I have a raiton affinity, so having a Kumogakure kunai would be ideal."

The boy eyes her with a critical eye, "Affinity?"

Hound looks at him seriously, contemplating if she owes him more favors. _I've already said way too much._ "Please read about that in the library when you return to your village. Thank you for this, Korohi-san. Good night," she says and plucks him up from the ground with two fingers, staining blood on the back of his collar, drops him outside the dining hall, and shuts the door.

"H-hey!" Korohi grips the door and tries to unlock it, only for strange black markings to snake around the lock. "Open up!" He bangs on the door—

" _Korohi_ ," a man says from behind him, sharply.

Korohi turns around, "C-sensei…"

"What are you doing, talking to a damn Konoha shinobi like that?" C roughly grabs his arm with a furious look on his face and drags him away from the door, "I don't want you to talk to those weak Konoha shinobi without my supervision again. Kami knows you'll spill all our village secrets."

Korohi grit his teeth, but says nothing. _They're not weak, at least…_ Korohi mentally curses himself. _Truly, she isn't. She even got my name, my kunai, and my 'affinity', whatever that its. All I got was her rank and something about raiton jutsu and information about kunai and chakra distribution._

That night, Korohi stares up at the ceiling in his room while C sleeps soundly. _Do Konoha shinobi act weak…on purpose? Is secrecy their specialty? Is that why I didn't get any information, while she got a ton of information on me?_ Still, he can't help a small smile, even though it twists into a smirk, from forming on his face. _I can't wait for those Chuunin Exams. The next one is in Konoha and she's a Konoha shinobi, so I'll probably see her. Just you wait, Elite Jounin._

* * *

"Hokage-sama, urgent report!" a woman from the Decoding Division runs into the man's office. "It's from an ANBU called Hound."

She hands the scroll over and Hiruzen hunches over intently, his eyes narrowed at the lines of ink.

 _Hokage-sama—_

 _It seems that Kumogakure and Iwagakure were not the only ones with malicious intent. The daimyo of the Land of Iron had served fish from the iron deposit, which nearly killed three shinobi from iron poisoning after ingesting it. Should they have died, blame would be placed on the other attending villages, and war would break out. This war would cause an increase in the demand for weapons and, directly, iron. The daimyo knew this and purposefully tried to poison and turn all of the shinobi against one another for his own profit due to a weakening economy. However, he quickly admitted to this attempted murder and necessary action was taken. The daimyo left with no second-in-command, so I ask you of how to proceed. The other shinobi have already sent word of this to their respective Kage._

— _Hound._

Hiruzen sighed and turned around his chair, taking a very deep breath from his pipe.

"Hokage-sama, it seems that Hound wishes for a quick reply," the woman says.

"I know," Hiruzen says tiredly. He takes up his brush and a sheet of paper and places weights on the paper, as thick as cloth. His gnarled fingers are quick to ink out a reply and he waits a moment for it to dry, "Here," he hands the paper to her and she quickly takes it back to another part of the Hokage tower to code and send out on a hawk.

Hiruzen shakes his head in dismay, having a bad feeling about where his Jounin and ANBU were. He stands and begins to walk out of the tower.

"Hokage-sama?" his secretary furrows his brows.

"I'm just taking a walk," Hiruzen says and descends down the stairs outside. He hopes that the somewhat chilly breeze will take his mind off of what he'd just read, but it hardly helps. The Hokage shuffles to a nostalgic building for all shinobi of Konoha. He spies a bench where another person is sitting and takes a seat beside the man.

The two men lean back on the old wooden bench and watch the Academy students finish up practicing their shuriken accuracy and spars.

"How long have you been sitting here?" Hiruzen asks after a while.

'Not long,' the man signs in ANBU code.

"How is Sasuke?" Hiruzen looks over at his old friend with his very messy ink-black hair and black eyes wearing a black yukata with a red and white fan stitched on carefully.

'Good. Still the best, but he has competition,' he signs back.

Hiruzen's eyes crinkle upwards when he sees Sasuke thrown to the ground by a boy with bright red hair and soft blue eyes. Sasuke lunges at the boy and lands a punch, only for smoke to engulf him.

"Uzumaki Naruto, huh?" Hiruzen muses, "That boy is so much like his father."

Kagami frowns slightly but doesn't say anything for a moment. Then his face darkens, 'I saw the hawk. Is everything alright?'

Hiruzen looks up at the tree that provides both men reprise from the sun, "Three of my Elite Jounin and my top medic are in the Land of Iron, making sure Kumo and Iwa don't take our stake for iron deposits. The Land of Iron's economy is weakening, so the daimyo concocted a plan to bring in revenue: he tried to start a war by attempting to kill the attending shinobi and have them blame one another. His plan was ruined when he admitted to attempted murder and, as my ANBU put it, 'necessary action was taken'. I had hoped for better. But, the ANBU didn't say that war was going to break out, so at least this generation's Genin will be safe from war."

Kagami knows his friend better than Danzo knows Hiruzen, 'I doubt a happy ending like that is what's truly bothering you. But, I won't pry. You know where to find me if you need to talk.'

"Dismissed," the Chuunin teacher says and the students disperse.

Sasuke catches sight of Kagami and walks a little faster. The Uchiha boy looks at his Hokage, "Hokage-sama," and bows.

"Sasuke-kun," Hiruzen replies with a small smile, "It looked like you had quite the competition back there."

Sasuke glances over at two blue orbs boring holes into him and glares, "What do you want, Naruto?"

"Rematch?" Naruto smiles, his hands in his pockets as he walks over to the three.

Sasuke crosses his arms with a smirk, "Fine. Get ready to lose."

"Let's go to the training grounds," Naruto turns on a heel, "Last one there buys the other dinner!" and Naruto is gone. Sasuke gasps before sprinting away, bringing a smile to the two old men's faces.

"Just…make sure Sasuke enjoys his childhood," Hiruzen gets up and begins to walk away. He doesn't have to look back to know that Kagami will take that to heart.

* * *

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this! Please review, if you have the time. And, any spelling mistakes, criticism, questions, or comments will be highly appreciated!


	2. Chapter 2

"Very well," Hiruzen says brightly, looking at the ANBU who hasn't moved a single millimeter from when she'd entered. She stays at the back with her fists clenched tightly. He senses no anger from her, but he'd hoped his cheer would make her ease up. She only seems more unnerved by that. Hiruzen sighs, "Dismissed."

Hound disappears before Rin can turn around and invite her to lunch with the other Jounin in a blur of black. Hound pushes herself at top speed over the rooftops and nearly slams into several walls when she reenters the ANBU barracks. Her footsteps are silent, or Danzo would have her head, and she slips past several ANBU before practically throwing herself down on the cold metal floor in a kneeling position, "Forgive my lateness, Danzo-sama."

Danzo's grip on his cane tightens and he squares his jaw, "The recruits are waiting."

"Yes, sir," she says and flickers down a flight where Hawk is taking it easy, sitting with his arms smugly crossed and his right leg over his left leg in nonchalance, as if waiting for a show to start. She can hear the smirk in his voice, "Now, don't keep Monkey waiting."

"Please do not worry, Hawk," Hound says. Her hands are itching to sink into the warm flesh in his neck and watch him asphyxiate on his own blood. She restrains herself and looks at the recruits, who eye her with a mixture of caution and skepticism.

One girl, around twelve, looks at the taller silver-haired ANBU, "Hawk-senpai told us that having a conspicuous hair color is detrimental to mission success, for it is easier for the enemy to spot a hair color that is not brown or black."

Before a scream can exit the girl's throat, Hound sends her flying fifty feet in the air and materializes above her and brings a leg, full of chakra and power, down on her stomach and the metal floor dents where the girl hits the floor with more than double her body weight.

"Now," the ANBU lands perfectly, "Until someone tells me what happened here, you will not only not be allowed to leave the ANBU barracks for a month, but will also be forbidden to obtain food from the refectory."

"Then how are we going to get food? We'll starve, senpai!" a boy, around fourteen or fifteen, cries out, incredulous, "Hawk-senpai, do something! This ANBU is crazy!"

Hawk simply smiles behind his mask and ignores the boy.

Before the boy can repeat himself, Hound grabs his arm and swings a few times on a heel and lets go, letting the boy fly towards the wall faster than any normal Chuunin could move. Upon impact, all of the breath is knocked out of him and a look of pure shock ripples on his face before a look of pure pain turns into a horrifying scream. He slides down the wall, leaving a splatter of blood when he'd hit the wall and a line the width of his body down he wall until he stops, slumps, and is completely still.

"I expect an answer for that as well," the ANBU brushes off nonexistent dust from her uniform. "In the meantime, for you all to mull this over, please pick a number between zero and five."

"Zero."

The girl who utters this finds her neck underneath Hound's foot and can't breathe. Her eyes begin to turn red and she thrashes violently, "Wrong."

"Four!"

In a flash, Hound breaks his arms and pushes him to the ground with a single finger, secretly relishing in his howls.

"T-two…"

The six-year-old who looks as if he'd just woken up from a nap finds himself much too close to the ANBU. His mouth opens to yelp, especially when he hears a bone in his foot break, but no sound can come out. "That, little one, is incorrect."

Something sounds off like an alarm when the railing is dented. Twin brown orbs widen as the sound gets louder and louder and the darkness below, just over the railing, gets closer and closer. The ground slips out from under him and the sound raises a few pitches. The boy is falling after three of his ribs and the arch in his foot are broken. All he can feel is the loud sound bouncing off of the walls and into his ears.

"Please quiet down," the ANBU says calmly, holding a single finger as she squats on the railing. Her gloved hand holding his index finger is the only thing keeping him from breaking his fingers and arms and dislocating his arms from their sockets at the least or becoming a puddle of blood, bones, and flesh at the worst if he falls. "Or I will drop you."

The boy goes completely silent at that, staring at the darkness below him. The loud sound, the alarm, stops.

It had been him.

He doesn't know how deep it is or how many flights up he'd fall. All he knows, all he sees, is the dark, dark, darkness below that will swallow him up. She doesn't let go. Gratefulness bursts through him and his cringe barely keeps back the happy shudder when he realizes that she won't.

In a motion that nearly brings him to vomit, Hound hauls him up and throws him behind her, momentarily saving him from ripping out his arms and dying. She backflips off of the railing and sees him pitifully land on his broken foot. The boy can't scream. By the time the pain shoots up to his brain, an electrical impulse that she can practically see, he isn't even conscious. She tilts her head slightly. _At least he didn't scream. He'd be dead if he did._

She turns to face the rest of the recruits, "What are your choices?"

By now, one girl, about ten, is shaking with fear. Her green eyes reflect horror, but she manages to respond in a surprisingly level voice, "Five."

Hound is disgusted. Her arm blurs and the girl lets out a gasp as a kunai punctures her side and exits to nail the first recruit's arm to the wall. The sound of bone shattering resounds.

"One!"

"Three!"

"Both of you," the ANBU states, "Please pick up the boy who responded with a 'two' and throw him over the railing."

"What!?" the girl who had said 'one' squawks. "No way!" Her round cheeks only make her expression of confusion more entertaining for Hound. Hound has her throat in her hand in the blink of an eye and the girl tries to feel the ground underneath her, only to see darkness beneath her out of the corner of her eye. "NO!" she screams and thrashes and struggles and shudders.

"I expect," Hound says slowly, "An answer for this as well."

Hound lets go.

The girl's shrieks continue for a few moments before they abruptly stop with a sickening squelch.

The boy with black hair and orange eyes who had said 'three' pales and his eyes go as wide as the sun that Hound had seen enough of, "I-I have an answer!"

Hound waits patiently while standing on the railing with perfect balance and chakra control. She laces her fingers behind her back and counts about ten remaining recruits she hadn't had the pleasure of meeting yet. The boy hesitates with pure fear chilling his bones and looks at the ANBU with repulsion.

"The reason that the girl who said something about hair color was disciplined was because she was trying to make fun of you," the boy says, trying to inject confidence in his shaking voice.

"That is," Hound flexes her fingers and feels her chakra reach to tips of her icy fingers, "Not an answer."

She waits until he comprehends her words. She jumps off and walks towards him. He doesn't take a step back. She studies him for a moment before crossing her arms and turning away from him and towards the other recruits, "Do any of you have any answers for what I requested?"

"Yes," a boy with spiky white hair and black eyes says, "You disciplined the first girl because she was trying to undermine your authority based on something as trivial and changeable as hair color. In fact, you could've dyed your hair this color on purpose. You disciplined the last girl because she questioned your authority and refused to carry out your orders, a trait that no useful ANBU can have."

"What about the others?" Hound quips.

The boy doesn't answer. Before the orange-eyed boy can feel his heartbeat pounding once more in his ears, the white-haired boy is sent to the floor where a shuriken was already embedded at some point and a hiss escapes him. Blood sprays onto Hound, who watches impassively as blood pools underneath him.

"What about the others?" Hound asks again, her foot planted firmly on him and presses the shuriken even more deeply into him. He shakes his head with a grimace and she kicks him, knocking him unconscious.

"S-senpai!" a girl about eight squeaks. "I have an answer."

Hound turns ever so slowly to look at her. The girl grips the hem of her shirt nervously; "The boy who complained about food and about you to Hawk-senpai was disciplined because he simply complained. He did not think around the problem. The solution to not having access is to find our own food, like rats that scurry around here or, if we're more desperate, sneaking into some of the ANBU quarters and stealing food. I-I don't have answers for the boy with the broken foot…"

"I do," a recruit says hastily before the girl can be made into a red puddle, "Well, an answer for all of the people who called out a number and were disciplined."

Hound feels a wave of relief when he says this. _Here I thought I'd have to kill them all. I don't even like killing kids. It's the reason Hawk was chosen to train strong recruits and weed out weak recruits instead of me. He likes this kind of thing._

"There was no correct answer," the boy says, "They just chose blindly. In a mission, that is more deadly than not doing anything at all."

"I'm done here," Hound states before walking away. "Hawk, the students still alive are yours to mold."

In a black blur, Hound ascends the floors and disappears to carry out Monkey's assassinations.

* * *

Rin pushes her food on her plate back and forth with a pout. Kurenai swipes a tender, juicy slice of pork from Anko's plate when she wasn't looking and leans her chin on her hand, "What's wrong?" Kurenai pushes the half-chewed pork slice to the side of her mouth to speak coherently.

"It's just…" Rin sighs.

"'Cause Kakashi-chan skipped out on you?" Anko blurts out, showing a mouthful of nauseating well-chewed grey and brown mush. Kurenai wrinkles her nose at her friend.

"No," Rin replies, "Over the latest mission with that ANBU, I learned a couple things about her. Seeing how us girls are kind of outnumbered two to one by guys for things like get-togethers, I thought I could invite her to lunch. Sure, I wanted Kakashi to come, but at the same time I didn't. Because with Kakashi around, the ANBU is much, much more quiet. I figured she'd open up with just us girls around in an enemy-free atmosphere or something. But…" Rin glances at the empty seat next to Kurenai at the table, "She left before I could even turn around in the Hokage's office and invite her. I can't help but think it's something I said or did…"

"What happened on the mission?" Kurenai asked.

"What's her name?" Anko demands after swallowing.

"Her name is Kosari. Hatake Kosari," Rin says.

"H-Hatake?" Anko pales. "Damn! That ANBU got Kakashi before I could make a move on him?! Where is she? I'll kill her!"

"Anko-chan, calm down. She's his sister," Rin says, placating. "On the mission, she opened up a little, telling us her name. The mission was a success, Konoha's stake won't be violated, but I wasn't able to get much information out of her besides what I've told you. We hardly talked. I'm just…extremely disappointed. I'd really hoped I could make another friend, especially after…"

Kurenai pats her shoulder across the table, "Don't worry. I'm sure she'll turn up in the village sooner or later."

* * *

As Jiraiya's grin widens when he can see the huge green gates, just mere specks of green, he slows his pace. He likes to savor these kinds of things. The excitement building up in his chest and the childish feeling of running nearly causing his chest to explode is nearly as satisfying as going to the hot springs and watching the women wash themselves and wade in the water.

Yet, for some reason, his grin fades. He stops and evaluates. _What could possibly be ruining my return to my peaceful village?_ His blood chills when he smells blood, a lot of it. The scent begins to surround him and suffocate him and he grits his teeth. _Orochimaru…how brazen of you to come waltzing up, especially right behind me. I'll teach you a lesson!_

White senbon explode from his mane of white hair and go in all directions, at least a thousand in every direction. He sends a crushing doton technique into the ground to destroy anything living. He isn't taking any chances. He sends a wave of fire around and away from him and the trees begin to burn. It isn't long until the first line of trees turn an ugly black.

"Orochimaru!" Jiraiya bellows, "Come out!"

 _Wait…this could be a genjutsu…I'd never notice it because…Shisui!_

He flushes chakra throughout his system violently, making sure to pay close attention to his brain and rid any trace of Shisui's chakra. There is no way he will lose to some crazy Uchiha brat. He closes his eyes shut and lets out a growl when he hears a hiss of fire losing a battle to water. Someone…Orochimaru or Shisui…had extinguished it. He bares his teeth, "Coward!"

A full hour passes and not a scratch is inflicted upon the Sannin. Jiraiya hesitantly peeks, and sees nothing but his own senbon, uneven earth, and blackened trees. "That's right, you better run! For the legendary Jiraiya-sama, the great Toad Sage, the SANNIN, is here!"

Jiraiya quickly runs to the Hokage's office, "Sarutobi-sensei, Orochimaru and Shisui are…they tried to kill me!"

Hiruzen laces his fingers together calmly, looking at his hyperventilating student carefully, "Are you sure? None of my Border Division ANBU reported anything, but a sudden fire, which was put out a suiton jutsu."

"That was them! The suiton jutsu!" Jiraiya cries.

Hiruzen sighs, "That was not Orochimaru or Shisui. For one thing, they would not put out your flames. And another thing, it was one of my own ANBU who put out those flames and reported your return."

Jiraiya scowls deeply, "Summon that ANBU. I'd like to have a word with him."

Hiruzen turns to the other person in the room, and places a hand on the stack of neatly stapled packets, "So these are all of the fifty reports?" Hiruzen looks at the grey and black-clad shinobi with a porcelain mask on and smiles a little.

"Yes, Hokage-sama," a female voice intones.

Jiraiya looks at the woman and glares when he smells blood, the same stench from earlier. "You…you smell like blood."

"I serve the Assassination Division of ANBU, Jiraiya-sama," she says. "Would you like to 'have a word with him' here, or someplace else?"

"You know who it was?" Jiraiya exclaims, "Tell him to meet me outside the hot springs."

"Yes, Jiraiya-sama," she says and disappears. Jiraiya storms out and within a minute of stomping and sprinting and growling, reaches the hot springs. He sees an ANBU already sitting on a bench and he towers over the shorter shinobi.

"Do you have any idea why I've summoned you?" Jiraiya hisses.

The porcelain mask shakes in dissent.

"Well, I'll tell you," Jiraiya scowls, "Because you impersonated two S-Rank rogue shinobi just to make fun of me! Do you ANBU think it's funny to goat a _Sannin_ like me? I'll get you kicked out of ANBU for this!"

"Jiraiya-sama," the ANBU says, "I did no such thing. Orochimaru and Uchiha Shisui did not approach the village. Please do not accuse me of such a heinous crime."

"Accuse? Don't play the innoc—"

"Do you have proof?" the ANBU asks.

Jiraiya glares, "I don't need any."

"Without proof, your argument is invalid. Excuse me, but I have much more work to do," the ANBU stands to leave.

"Like hell you're leaving!" Jiraiya lunges for the ANBU, but catches nothing but thin air. He growls but quickly forgets about the ANBU when he spies on several twenty-something ladies entering the water. A grin and blush spread on his face and he giggles about research.

* * *

"Graduation is in a week," Hiruzen says. He holds a steaming cup of tea in his hands, warming his fingers without chakra. The ANBU beside him nods slightly, agreeing with the fact. She senses hesitation and frustration, perhaps with himself, in his tone so she replies, "Have you decided on the arrangements?"

"Yeah," Hiruzen says.

"I take it you're not satisfied? If you would like, I could take a look at student files and Jounin files and create balanced teams," she says softly against the cold air. She feels her fingertips beginning to freeze in the kind of weather that was cold enough to freeze water but wouldn't bring snow. She was grateful no snow would fall.

"No," Hiruzen says sharply. Then he quickly adds, "As ANBU Black Ops leader, you'll be informed tomorrow anyway. I don't think certain Jounin will be particularly happy with this arrangement, but it will be for the best. In the long run."

"Yes," she agrees passively. It wasn't like she'd applied for this kind of long-winded, stressful and, Kami, yearlong occupation. It wasn't like she had anyone to give the extra pay to; no friends, no boyfriends, no husbands, no children, and certainly no parents. Kakashi was already going to be one of those Jounin sensei anyway and wouldn't need the money. Training kids who had a shred of potential was irritating enough. Training potential _into_ kids? Now, that was impossible. Besides, she didn't even like kids.

Hiruzen sighs.

"Is something else troubling you?" she asks, "I don't think you summoned me to just talk out a concern in the middle of the night and drink tea."

Hiruzen opens his mouth but then closes it. He doesn't look at her, "No. It was just this. I hope you have a good night's sleep in the ANBU barracks."

She furrows her brows behind her mask _He's never wished me anything as odd as that before…_ but simply nods, "Thank you, Hokage-sama," and she vanishes. Hiruzen strokes his chin as he walks back into the Hokage tower. _Good night's sleep, huh?_

* * *

Once more, the Jounin gather on the rooftop of the Hokage tower and even more so than before, Hound gets a terrible, terrible feeling. Her blood had been frozen the moment she had woken up and Danzo was nowhere to be found in the ANBU barracks. She kneels, in stark contrast to the nonchalant poses the other Jounin around don, and awaits orders. Beside her, Kakashi isn't reading his book.

Terror isn't the right word, but she goes along with it, too 'terrified' to think of a more fitting word.

"…for Umino Iruka's class, a class with a startling amount of clan children, I had to think carefully. The only time we had seen this amount of clan children in one graduating class was before the war. As a result of this precious gift of the future, I spent many sleepless nights deciding which Genin would be placed with which Jounin," Hiruzen brings out a paper from his pocket with a flourish, "Here are the results."

"Team 6…"

 _Is terror the right word? Or is it…_

"Team 8: Yūhi Kurenai leads Haruno Sakura, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino."

"Team 10: Sarutobi Asuma leads Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Chouji."

"Hokage-sama, you skipped my name," Kakashi said.

 _Bitter hindsight?_

"Team 7: Hatake Kosari—"

"What?" Kakashi nearly faints. "What? Hokage-sama…"

Then anger erupts beside her.

"She didn't even apply! She doesn't have the credentials! She isn't fit to lead children! What makes you think you can just…you can just take ANBU away from her?! What makes you think that you can just take away the only chance I had at repentance?! I worked harder than anyone to qualify and I wasn't late to a single meeting for Jounin sensei and I observed all of them and submitted more thorough reports than any of the other Jounin sensei! What possessed you to make you such a sadist?!" Kakashi explodes. Anger and hurt and disappointment and dismay and confusion and horror and _bitterness_ flash in his eyes. Kosari stares up at her brother in shock.

 _My name…my name isn't Kosari. Hokage-sama isn't referring to me. I'm an ANBU. I'm the top agent for ANBU Black Ops. He isn't referring to me._

"Kakashi…" a collective murmur ripples through the other Jounin.

Kakashi is still bristling and shaking with white hot anger, "So, Hokage- _sama_? What do you possibly expect me to do in the time of a whole year? Oversee her damn team? Ridiculous. They'll be killed by her before a month is up."

Kosari pushes herself to her feet and looks at the village's leaders. She looks at the man she officially serves under and at the man she trusts with her life, "Danzo-sama…what are your orders?"

Hiruzen is stunned. _She values his word over mine?_

"The same," Danzo says, "You are to lead Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Hyūga Hinata to the rank of Chuunin and protect them from enemy harm in the meantime."

"May I ask why?" her voice is calm but dangerously edged.

"Because Hatake Kakashi is unspeakably unqualified," Danzo says, "You have no emotional or past ties to any of these children. Kakashi was led by Naruto's father, his KIA teammate is from the same clan as Sasuke, and Hyūga Ko, Hinata's trainer, personally taught Kakashi how to create the perfect trap and rudimentary medical procedure."

"These dangerous emotional attachments will endanger the team's success and ability to reach Chuunin. With the outside dangers I had spoken of the last time we gathered here, I do not wish to risk their lives any more than I have to," Hiruzen says, "Kakashi may even have a bias due to his past with Naruto's father and the Uchiha clan and train only one or two of them, leaving the other without proper training and a higher chance of death in the Chuunin Exams."

"May I point something out, Danzo-sama?" Hound asks.

"You may," Danzo says, trying not to grin so much and rub it in Hiruzen's shocked face.

"Do you not think that these 'emotional attachments' will benefit Hatake Kakashi's instruction? He will be obligated to teach them with a higher level of quality and better prepare them for not only the Chuunin Exams, but for even the darkest part of shinobi life," Hound asks.

Danzo feels an odd sense of pride. "That is uncertain. I don't want to take any risks, especially when it comes to this team with the jinchuuriki, last Uchiha, and Hyuuga heiress. We don't want another kidnapping episode for any of these children, especially the Hyuuga. War would most certainly break out. Without any emotional ties to compromise their safety and instruction, you are most suited."

Hound looks at the Hokage monument for a moment before asking one more question, "May I ask one more question?"

"Yes," Danzo almost purrs, so _so_ very smug.

"My being a Jounin sensei for these three Genin does not compromise my place in ANBU, correct? For example, after a mission with the Genin, I am able to return to the ANBU barracks and carry out my duties, correct?" Hound asks.

Danzo's smug look melts away and Hound freezes. Her obsidian eyes go wide, "Danzo-sama…"

Hiruzen holds up a burning piece of paper. At the top is written: 'ANBU Contract: Agent Hound'. His face is expressionless, "I'm sorry, Hound."

"No!" Hound screams and lunges at her Kage. Lightning surrounds her and hate and murder and shock and hurt and _bitterness_ flash in her eyes, " _I won't let you take this away from me!"_

Hiruzen dodges her and winces as lightning destroys a large part of the roof. The string on the back of her head that holds her mask on her face comes undone and her mask falls. It shatters into too many pieces and her seething face, her angry, boiling black eyes with unshed tears is all too clear to him. He shakes her head at her, "Truly, I am sorry."

"Damn you!" Kosari screams, "Is my life some kind of toy to you?! I don't live to be used and abused! I live to be an ANBU, to be an assassin in the shadows, where no one else can die! My mother and siblings did not die for this!" Kosari's hands crackle with lightning, "I did not fight **_your_** war and kill thousands of innocent people and give up any happy life I could've had and for you to just take away everything I cherished!" tears freely run down her face, "I…I had people I needed to be there for. But, for the village, for my orders, _for you_ , I swallowed my tears and swallowed my grief and my sadness and pushed away any worry I had for them, any worry about if they were sick or were sad or were hungry or in pain, and carried out every single order, every assassination, and every S-Rank mission you asked without question because I thought you'd protect them while I was gone."

Kakashi is still and watches his sister break.

Kosari clenches her fists and hangs her head and _bitter_ tears fall through eyes shut tight, "And they're dead now! You didn't protect them! You _**let**_ them die! I joined ANBU because it was the only place that truly kept to their word. Rules and regulations were absolute and Kakashi isn't dead right now because I joined ANBU," a bitter laugh escapes her, "Are you happy now, Hokage-sama? You're well on your way to creating the perfect pair of shinobi. You want me to train them? Please do not worry, for I will train them," there is a glint in her eye that Hiruzen doesn't like. He purses his lips, "Kosari, I'm sorry. But this had to be done."

"For them, right? For the village, right?" Kosari asks, suddenly calm.

"I—"

"Right," Kosari answers her own question, "The answer is 'yes'. It is for the village," Kosari says and turns to look at Kakashi, "Do you hear that Kakashi? We must swallow our anger, our disappointment, and our crushed dreams, once again and become Hiruzen's puppets," she grins, "Very well! Your last loyal Hatake are at your disposal," Kosari spreads out her arms as if to illustrate something grand, "Good luck," and she disappears.

Kakashi curses, not caring if everyone heard, "Good luck, Hokage-sama," he says in monotone and disappears in a swirl of leaves.

* * *

"Hey."

The cloth is a dirty color, a deep brown, nearly black from all the grime. Once more, it is dunked into a bucket and she moves onto another grave. She is careful to clean the corners and the crevices where dirt and moss had built up in the engravings of name after name. Her ears do not hear the 'hey' and she does not look up when he calls her name. She keeps her head down.

It is what she _must_ do.

"Leave me alone," she finally says, "You have a pastime already. I am busy with mine. Go away."

Kakashi sighs and pulls a hand out of his pocket and places it on her shoulder and his warmer and more viscous chakra warms her icy shoulder, "Come on, you can do this later. Let's get dinner. I'll pay."

"No," she says, "I _want_ to do this. I _want_ to stay here," she turns to look at him and her eyes pierce his heart, "Can't I do _one_ thing of my own volition?"

"Fine, a compromise," Kakashi says, "Leave a clone here to clean. Come on," Kakashi scratches his face, "Please."

She stops scrubbing the grave for a moment, "Fine," she acquiesces and her fingers form a seal and a clone continues her work. She stands and follows him wordlessly to wherever he was willing to pay. Her expectations are quite low; Kakashi had always been stingy and would probably bring her to an informal restaurant with cheap, greasy food and low prices.

She looks up and sees a somewhat fancy restaurant with a smiling hostess outside holding menus, "Welcome! How many in your party?" Kosari narrows her eyes at Kakashi, suspicious.

"Two," Kakashi says.

"Well then, if you'd just follow me," the hostess leads them to a low table with soft cushions to sit on. "Here are your menus. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask your server. She will be right with you in a few minutes," and she walks back to the front.

Kosari feels the cushion with two fingers, studying the fabric, "What gives? You were always so frugal. It's not your birthday, is it?"

"No," Kakashi says, "It's a celebration."

"Of?" Kosari glances up at him with suspicion.

"Good evening, my name is Yuka, and I will be your server. Would you like to start with drinks?" the server suddenly appears.

"I'll have sake," Kakashi says. "And so will she."

"No, I—"

"I'll give you a few minutes to decide on what to eat. By the way, today's special is the braised sea bream with a savory and spicy sauce with a side of blanched vegetables," the server says and walks away.

"I don't like drinking," Kosari says, "I wanted water."

"I'll ask for a round of water when she comes back," Kakashi shrugs.

"Why are we here?" Kosari asks bluntly. She doesn't bother to read the menu. Kakashi leans his chin on his hand and looks at his sister for a moment with battle-hardened obsidian eyes, "We could both use a little luxury. Don't you think?"

Kosari rolls her eyes, "Sure."

"But," she chews the inside of her cheek, "What _will_ you do in the meantime? You're not training Team 7, after all."

"I don't know," Kakashi lays on his side with an elbow propping up his head and one leg bent.

She wrinkles her nose in disgust, "Only models strike that pose. It's gross seeing you, a grown man, doing that."

"Oh?" Kakashi purrs, "Are you sure? I thought ladies liked this kind of reversal of roles thing."

"No," Kosari shudders, "Only a select few would, and I certainly don't. If I were your girlfriend, I'd dump you the moment you did this. You don't have a girlfriend, do you?" she arches a brow with a small smirk. _And those books of yours would scare any girl away._

"No," Kakashi admits, "All of the nice girls are dead."

Kosari shrugs, "Because the nice girls are weak. You know, the ones who fawned over you in the Academy. Well, Nohara-san is the exception, but she's just lucky."

"You're nice," Kakashi says sarcastically.

"Thanks," Kosari crosses her arms with a mock glare, "That's why I'm single."

Kakashi stifles a laugh, "Look at us, _Kosari_. We've lost our family, our friends, and our only wishes as shinobi of Konoha. We're just putty in Hokage-sama's hands. But," he sighs, "At least you're still alive."

"At least you're still alive," Kosari agrees, "If I lost you…" she shakes her head, "Suicide would be the last thing for Hiruzen to worry about."

"Thanks," Kakashi says, amused, but there is no hint of mock in his voice.

"Do you need more time to decide?" the server asks, suddenly popping up again.

"No, I'll just have the special," Kosari says as the woman places the drinks on the table, "And he'll have the same. Could we also have a round of water?"

"Coming right up," the woman smiles politely and walks briskly away.

"Hey," Kakashi growls, "I wanted something else," he whines, mocking her.

"Oh?" Kosari asks innocently, "I'll ask for 'something else' when she comes back, ne?" she tilts her head a little.

Kakashi lets his scowl go and the two let out a small laugh.

 _It's good to see you again, Kakashi._

 _Just…don't die. I'd_ _ **destroy**_ _anyone who'd hurt even a hair on you, Kosari_.


	3. Chapter 3

"Lesson one: my name is Kosari. You will refer to me only as Kosari-sensei," Kosari says and picks at her very, very dusty Jounin vest. "I will be your Jounin sensei for a little over a year, until the Chuunin Exams. Was information on the Exams part of your Academy curriculum?"

"No," a boy with startlingly blue eyes says. "Chuunin?"

"There are three ranks in the shinobi system: Genin, Chuunin, and Jounin. You three are Genin, shinobi who do not currently have knowledge of the world's social, economic, and political aspects, limited jutsu repertoire, and, most importantly, have not killed. In some respect, having killed a person is what draws the line between a Genin and Chuunin," Kosari studies her students' reactions.

"So, which are you?" the girl with white eyes asks.

"Jounin," Kosari replies tonelessly. "In the time before the Exams, my job is solely this: to keep you alive until the Chuunin Exams. Keeping you alive entails teaching you basic ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, and other skills you'll need as Chuunin. To prepare you for not only the Exams but for later shinobi life, we'll be going on missions to allow you to apply the skills you learn. Missions may or may not require you to go out of the village and range in difficulty from non-life-threatening, D-Rank, to very difficult and risky, A-Rank. In the end, as Chuunin, you will be expected to perform C-Rank and B-Rank missions, and learn C-Rank and B-Rank techniques on your own. And, of course, your pay is raised."

"How much?" the same boy from earlier asks with a grin.

"Depends on the mission you take. C-Rank and B-Rank missions pay a few thousand ryo. It's enough to get by on, especially with the constant replacement of clothes ruined and torn and replacement of weapons and taxes and rent. However, don't get ahead of yourselves. You're still a Genin; you will take only D-Rank missions, which are missions that build your stamina, patience, and focus—three things you'll need as Chuunin. After all, what's a Chuunin who can't outrun his opponent, outwait a stalemate, or outwit an opponent in a battle of jutsu?"

"In addition, the Exams also serve as war between the five shinobi countries. The Chuunin Exams are a battle, a blood bath, between shinobi as representatives of their respective countries' strength. In other words, it's a way to show that Konoha, for example, still has strong shinobi. Most of the legends, like the Kiiroi Senko, are gone. You are the next generation to reestablish Konoha as the strongest. In the Final round, domestic and foreign dignitaries will come to watch and will have a word in who gets the title of Chuunin," Kosari continues and inhales deeply. _Never thought I'd have to give that speech._

"Kosari-sensei, is there anything else we should be aware of when it comes to things about being a Chuunin and our path to get there?" the white-eyed girl asks.

Kosari isn't expecting that question. She had expected the conversation to flow into something else she'd need to explain, have them demand things about her, and then finish up the meeting with the second lesson. Her obsidian eyes glint. No, this was no ordinary team. She looks at a point in the distance and nostalgia hits her before she remembers she has a question to answer, "Yeah, one thing I can think of right now. Over the course of this year, you will get only a fraction of a taste of hell, if at all. Hell isn't necessary the place you go to after you die. Hell exists, and it exists on this plane," Kosari says seriously, "War is only one kind of hell. In hindsight, if you want to keep the people around you for as long as possible, it's prudent not to keep secrets. I'm sure the three of you have an array of secrets and keep them for all sorts of reasons, but in the midst of a battle when lives are on the line, those reasons will pale in comparison to a life," Kosari runs a hand through her silver hair, "That was a little dark."

The blue-eyed boy looks curiously at his teacher, "Do you have secrets?"

"Of course," Kosari says, "But I'm not about to tell you just because I said not to. Only if I actually have to, like if I'm about to die and the world might come crashing down or if one of you will die if I keep it undisclosed. But it won't."

"What about the scar on the side of your face?" the girl asks, peering at the pure white line on Kosari's face. Kosari feels it with an icy finger and shakes her head, "Birthmark," she clasps her hands together, "Tomorrow, on training ground 4, we'll meet up. Dismissed."

* * *

The circadian biological clock is responsible for this, she reminds herself. And five years of ANBU is responsible for this, she reminds herself. Kosari leans against a branch in a tree, unable to sleep for more than two hours last night. ANBU duties, of which she'd been serving up until at least two weeks ago, made her entire body in a position ready to tackle and kill the enemy. Her legs were bent like a frog's, ready to spring into action. Waking up after getting only an hour of sleep had become the norm that she'd gotten used to rather quickly in ANBU, and the thought of getting even five hours was unheard of.

All she could think last night was: _That's enough time for the entire village to be lit ablaze._

She knew it wasn't going to happen, with all of her ANBU she'd personally trained into competent shinobi about, but the anxiety of sleeping for long enough to slip into a deep sleep where one wouldn't even hear the enemy's breath or sense a kunai coming near to one's throat and a million other scenarios that were quite possible kept her awake for most of the night.

Even her apartment made her uneasy. It was at least twice the size of her ANBU room and therefore had way too many places for the enemy to hide. By anyone else's standards, her apartment was too small to live in.

To some extent, the thing that made her most uneasy was that it hadn't been rented to anyone else during her time in ANBU or before. It was just as she'd left it before she entered ANBU. If it hadn't been rented to anyone else, someone paid the rent monthly. Kosari felt a wave of nausea when she realized that the night before; Hiruzen had _planned_ to take her out of ANBU. He _calculated_ it all. She wasn't sure if Danzo knew, but it was too late. She regretted not taking a match and burning the apartment when she'd first been accepted into ANBU.

Kosari looks up and sees the three Genin approaching from three different directions. Her hands blur as she summons chakra and after a few moments, jumps down to her Genin. Her cold eyes look from one Genin to the other before she says, "Unless you can land a hit on me, I will revoke your Genin status and bar you from ever becoming a shinobi…" she feels a grin try to sabotage her expressionless face, "And I will kill you. Before you deny my authority to stop your heart from beating, let it be known that as Genin, the state _owns_ you. The definition of 'state' changes from village to village, but here in Konoha, the state is defined by anyone with a clearance level of 12 or above. I have a level 15. If the Hokage or I order you to destroy an entire town, you destroy an entire town. There is no room for disobedience. A shinobi is one who takes orders and endures anything and everything to carry out those orders to the letter. Your lives are tools for the state to wield, nothing more and nothing less. So, if I order you to fight me with the intent to kill, you will charge at me with the intent to kill," Kosari sees shock and surprise, but no fear in their eyes.

Once again, she reminds herself, this is no ordinary team. They have endured through years and years of pain. Someone threatening them is nothing.

But, it does have the desired effect.

"Right now, it is 8am. At 10am, if you have not landed a hit on me using any weapon or means you would like, then I will kill you," Kosari says, "Begin!"

The three Genin sprint at her and Kosari backflips several times until she grabs onto a branch and disappears completely into the foliage. The three don't pursue her; it's obvious they're out of her league.

"What do we do?" Hinata mutters, "She's too fast."

"Isn't the Hyuuga clan special?" Naruto asks, "Your eyes…I think…"

"Yes," Hinata says and feels a flame of pride warm her chest, "I can see her chakra points, similar to veins," Hinata wastes no time activating her kekkei genkai and Naruto watches in fascination and curiosity as veins bulge around her white eyes. "It's called the byakugan."

"Ah," Naruto says, grinning out of excitement. "Do you see her?"

"Watch out!" Sasuke yells and lets a few shuriken loose, hurling them at incoming shuriken. The shuriken clatter to the ground and Sasuke is fuming. His glare nearly sets the trees around him on fire. Hinata makes a face, about to say that she was about to block them, but says nothing. It's not nearly as important as living.

"Over there," Sasuke hisses at Naruto, "Come on!" the Uchiha throws kunai and shuriken where the first wave of shuriken had come from, only for the ground underneath Naruto to explode, sending the Uzumaki boy at least thirty feet up in the air.

Panic sets in and he hastily summons chakra up to his hands and forms a single seal. Twenty copies of himself, complete with shadows, twist themselves and grab onto the original and hold him up, ready to take the impact that would've landed the boy in the hospital if he were alone. They all fall and in a puff of smoke, Naruto reveals himself more or less unharmed. Grimacing, he rubs a sore behind.

"Are you okay?" Hinata asks, wide-eyed.

"Y-yeah," Naruto winces, "Really."

"Stop wasting time and look for her, Hinata!" Sasuke roars, "We don't have time to waste on small-talk!"

Hinata's lips press into a thin line and she notes the deer-caught-in-headlights glint in his eyes, "Calm down, Sasuke-san. We'll land a hit, no matter what."

Naruto frowns. _I thought I summoned at least thirty or forty…but ended up with so few. I trained yesterday, but not hard enough to have chakra exhaustion. Well, I never get chakra exhaustion. I always wake up without a scratch or bruise and with my chakra reserves at 100%. There should be no reason I was able to only summon twenty clones._

Naruto stares at his hands until Sasuke snaps his fingers in front of his face, "Hinata can't see Kosari-sensei's chakra. Send out your clones as scouts in all directions!"  
"Y-yeah," Naruto says and summons a hundred. Again, only eighty appear. The Uzumaki boy frowns. _What's going on?_

Hinata's bulging eyes look at him in concern, "What's that face for?"

"I thought I summoned a hundred. But there's only eighty," Naruto says as his clones run off into the forest.

Hinata's eyes drift from Naruto to Sasuke and then to her own hands in growing shock, "Genjutsu."

"What?" Sasuke growls.

"Yes. Kosari-sensei had us in her trap from the start," Hinata places her hands together, "Kai!"

The fog she feels lifts and she turns to Naruto, "Naruto-san, I…"

He isn't there. Hinata whirls around, looking for Sasuke. Sitting atop a post is Kosari peeling an apple with a kunai. A long and even and growing strip of green peel extends from the apple. Kosari puts the end of the peel into her mouth and slices up the apple, "You want a slice?"

"No," Hinata says coldly, "Where are Naruto-san and Sasuke-san?"

Kosari slowly chews and feeds the peel into her mouth. The strip is slowly getting shorter and Kosari holds the slices in a cloth tied at the top to create a pouch. She doesn't answer the girl, instead settling on analyzing the girl's every facial muscle and enjoys the slight anger on the clan girl's face, "Your mother died in a fire, right?"

Hinata's eyes go wide. Then they narrow and she glares before charging at the woman with hands that glow with blue chakra. Kosari jumps high in the air and lands gracefully on the soft grass. She chews some more and the long peel grows shorter. Hinata's attack hits the post and splinters it in perhaps a thousand pieces. Kosari, despite not really being partial to the clans of Konoha, is glad that the girl isn't a weakling that would've run and hid behind Sasuke. _From what I've heard, Sasuke was quite popular._

Kosari shakes her head. _Just like him…_

Hinata turns around with hate exuding from her face and rushes at Kosari once more, this time inputting chakra into her feet and increasing her speed doubly. Kosari sidesteps and the girl swings her leg perpendicularly to catch Kosari between her outstretched fist and foot, only for the Jounin to duck and sucker punch her in the gut. Hinata goes flying towards the splintered post and hits the ground hard. She rolls multiple times before coming to a stop and blood begins to stain the green grass. Kosari walks over, taking her time, and rolls the girl over with a foot. Hinata looks hatefully at Kosari with one eye shut tight and the other a mere slit. The veins around Hinata's eyes threaten to recede. Hinata pants and wheezes and she can taste blood in the back of her mouth, "Y-your chakra…"

Kosari tilts her head and her tongue grabs more of the peel into her mouth. Hinata swallows hard and winces as Kosari's foot keeps her down, "Your chakra…the color…is the same as that man's…"

"Man?" Kosari frowns, "I'm female. I'm not some cross-dresser," and she kicks Hinata into the forest and slips a slice of sweet crisp apple into her mouth and the sweetness burns her throat. Kosari spits it out and looks at the white mush with sadness. _I thought I liked sweet things. That pastry I saw and smelled when I was given that mission to the Land of Iron was what I've been dreaming of. Maybe it's just this kind of apple…?_

She holds the pouch with two fingers, closes her eyes, and clasps the other hand to her other three fingers in a prayer. "Forgive my waste."

In a flash, a kunai rips the cloth from her hand and carries the slices away to be pinned to the base of a tree. She opens her eyes after a moment and her obsidian eyes slide over to look at the source. Sasuke glares at the kneeling former ANBU and she can almost see the smoke coming from his ears, "I'll kill you!"

"So you got loose, huh? I didn't think you'd make it, even with the paper bombs I'd attached to you," Kosari stands and pulls a little bit more peel into her mouth. Only about a foot remains now. "Well? Are you going to fight your murderer or what?"

Sasuke can't help a smirk from forming and Kosari's guard goes up. _What's he planning?_ The boy launches kunai and shuriken and forms a single seal with a hand and bombs go off. Kosari's visibility reduces to zero in the fog of purple smoke and her eyes water. _He's laced this with some sort of irritant. Damn kid probably put this in as a special order to the weaponry shop._ Kosari knows she can easily escape or at least get rid of the smoke, but his plan intrigues her. After all, this is their first and last evaluation. This is his one chance to show her that he's worth being alive.

Kosari puts a finger to the ground and senses around a two hundred feet racing towards her. A gust of wind disperses the smoke and Kosari sees clones of a blue-eyed, red-haired boy racing towards her with kunai and…something thin and glinting.

Wire.

Kosari eye-smiles at Naruto as he releases the wire. Kosari readies her spring-like legs to jump and evade the wire, but a sudden heat causes her to hesitate. She looks up and sees a huge fireball that is close. Too close. She smells the stench of hair burning and feels a hair close to her scalp being singed. Kosari pumps chakra through her body and jumps into the earth. None of the clones notice her disappearance; they're too busy dispersing into smoke from Sasuke's fiery jutsu. Neither does Sasuke notice; he's above the fireball and can't see her disappear. The fire creates a crater and destroys any evidence of her escape.

The woman quickly resurfaces, jumps into the air, and flings Sasuke into the forest. A startled yell escapes the Uchiha boy. Kosari lands smoothly and bites off the peel, now covered in dirt from her escape. She wipes the gross taste of dirt from her mouth and turns to see Naruto racing at her with another clone. The one wields a fūton jutsu while the other flings an-almost exploding paper tag. It explodes and increases in temperature and ferocity from the wind and races towards the woman. Her eyes glaze over in boredom; was fire all they could think of?

Kosari dodges easily and in a split second has Naruto's throat in her hand. His clone disappears after Kosari snaps his neck and she stares unrelentingly into his bright blue eyes, "Do you think this is a joke? Do you think the world is just a game?"

"L-let…" Naruto can't breathe.

"You're weak," she spits, "Come on, Uzumaki-san. Show me you have the potential to kill me!" Kosari slams him into the ground. He gasps and coughs and wheezes. For a split second, his father's glare catches Kosari off guard. Her eyes widen a fraction and Naruto throw himself at her. Kosari blinks and dodges, very narrowly. She puts a hand to her chest and glares, "Answer me!"

"Why would I?!" Naruto replies, "The entire village hates me! All the glares and hateful words are all too real!" then he smiles bitterly, "I wouldn't expect someone like you to understand, though."

Kosari narrows her eyes. In less than a blink of an eye, she towers over him and kicks him high up in the air. He gasps before her leg arcs down and he is sent spiraling towards the ground. The boy lets out a silent scream as his body crashes into the hard-packed soil. Kosari turns to see…nothing.

After five years, she reminds herself. Her nerves were still on edge…but…she narrows her eyes. Never wrong. She turns on a heel and steps into the forest. She hears a snap and her eyes go wide as wire wraps around her. She can't move. She sees Sasuke and Hinata charging at her from opposite directions. Kosari's eyes dart from one to the other until she can see the whites of their eyes. Sasuke cocks back a fist and lets it soar into a soft, female face.

Hinata is blown back by Sasuke's punch. She drops to one knee and holds her cheek with a hand, "Hey! Sasuke-san!"

Sasuke looks at her in confusion before he connects the dots and curses loudly, "Kawarimi," Sasuke kicks a tree and makes a sizeable indent and exposes lightly colored bark, " _Fuck_."

Hinata looks away when the vulgar language assaults her ears and stands, "What time is it?"

"Ten," a voice says calmly. The two Genin turn around and see Kosari standing without a scratch. She dumps a hissing and groaning and bleeding Naruto on the ground between them and she flicks her wrist. Wire wraps around them tightly and grazes their necks, keeping them from moving a muscle. Naruto's blue eyes glare daggers at the silver-haired woman.

"Now," Kosari twirls a kunai, the same color as her eyes and definitely not of Konoha origin, on her finger, "Whom shall I kill first?"

Her eyes flick from Genin to Genin. She forms a few seals and lets out a wave of suffocating killer intent. Their pupils retract to mere pinpoints and Sasuke's entire body shakes. He turns and sees Hinata's neck snapped by Kosari's thin fingers. Drops of blood hit his face and he can't stop from looking beside him where a kunai sinks into Naruto's chest and wire begins to cut his head off. The Uchiha lets out a bloodcurdling scream when Naruto's head hits the ground. **_"STOP! LEAVE HIM—!"_**

A burning and unspeakably painful kunai sinks into Sasuke's legs and cuts off his cries. Then Kosari stabs his arms with two more kunai before slitting his throat.

"Hey!" a white-eyed pale shinobi jumps down from a tree and slams Kosari against a tree, "What do you think you're doing?!"

Kosari's face goes blank, "Who are you?"

The Hyuuga man grits his teeth and grabs Hinata's warm body. "Hinata-sama!"

"You're interrupting my evaluation," Kosari says coldly, "Leave."

"Like hell I will!" he screams, "What you've done is…"

Kosari shakes her head, "It had to be done."

Hinata opens her eyes in the man's lap. A scream escapes her throat before she realizes who is peering down at her. Her whole body quivers and she sits up and wipes away tears. She grits her teeth and looks at Kosari, "I hate you!"

The shrill scream of Hinata awakens Sasuke. Sasuke blinks and a flinch racks through his entire body. He turns to Naruto frantically and shakes him, "Naruto! Naruto!"

Naruto stirs and opens his blue eyes. Fear pounds through Naruto's head and the next thing he sees is Kosari taking a man with the same eyes as Hinata and shoving him against a tree and hissing, "I thought I told you to leave. _Go_."

The man growls, but complies. The Genin flinch at the sight of the woman, who takes a seat on the soft grass. She doesn't smile at them and Naruto shakes his head in denial, "I…I died…you killed me…"

"Genjutsu," Kosari says, "I said I'd kill you if you didn't land a hit on me. And I did. I never had to _actually_ spill your blood. But," Kosari runs a hand through her slightly singed hair, "I guess burning my hair _does_ count," she glances at Sasuke with genuine approval. Sasuke's eyes widen for a moment. Kosari continues, "If none of you were able to land a hit on me, I would've failed you and sent you back to the Academy. But, in my mind, a 'hit' is defined by an attack. It doesn't have to be your hands. And Uchiha-san's fire kinda got a few strands, so," Kosari gives them a smile, "You pass the evaluation," Kosari's smile fades instantly into seriousness, "Lesson two: teamwork is of utmost importance. Alone none of you were able to do anything. Lesson three: don't trust your surroundings, or any preconception, or anyone, really. For example, you thought that this would be easy and were caught off-guard and took a rather long time to realize the genjutsu, Also, Uchiha-san should've realized that killing a Jounin would take more than a simple katon jutsu and if he'd kept his guard up he wouldn't have been flung into the forest," Kosari sighs, "But, good job."

Relief isn't immediate. It takes them a good five seconds to comprehend that not only would they not die and not lose their Genin rank, but also remain as shinobi of Konoha. Naruto can't help himself and breaks into Minato's heartwarming grin. Kosari looks away and Hinata frowns at Kosari's reaction. _Maybe she's just that heartless that she can't even bring herself to smile with Naruto and I._

Hinata sighs and finds her smile morphing into a grin and then a laugh of relief. Kosari's kunai cuts the wire, "Are any of you hungry for lunch? My treat."

"Yeah!" Naruto's eyes shine with brilliance. He jumps up and hauls Sasuke and Hinata up each with a hand. Sasuke shakes his head in dismay at his friend's (one-sided rival, he reminds himself) sudden change in attitude, especially around the woman who'd just 'killed' them.

"Um…" Kosari scratches the side of her face, "Uzumaki-san, you like ramen, don't you? I can buy takeout and we can have a picnic of sorts somewhere…" Kosari looks at the other two, "Hyuuga-san, Uchiha-san, what would you two like? I can send a clone to retrieve it."

"I'll have pan-fried dumplings," Hinata says.

"Onigiri," Sasuke says.

Kosari nods and the four walk into Konoha, looking bloody, bruised, and beaten up. Eyes follow the three Genin and one Jounin. Two clones appear and the three Kosari's split and go to three different vendors. Sasuke, Naruto, and Hinata lean against the wall of a building and observe Kosari. Hinata looks at the woman, "She's terrifying."

"But strong," Sasuke quips. _I didn't even notice her genjutsu at first._

Naruto nods in agreement.

Kosari motions with a jerk of her head for them to join her. The three scamper over and follow the silver-haired Jounin to an embankment by a stream in the shade of a large oak tree. Kosari produces a large cloth from a scroll and places the bags down. Naruto's eyes glimmer when she unseals the cloth, "How'd you do that?"

"You apply a certain amount of chakra to the seal matrix," Kosari says simply. She hands them their food and pours bottled tea.

A few minutes into their peaceful lunch, Kosari blanches when she hears familiar voices calling out her name. She takes another bite of her food and hopes they'll go away.

They don't.

"Well, what do we have here?" a tall and strong-looking smoking man smirks. "Looks like a picnic. Mind if we join?"

Kosari doesn't respond. _Not here. Not here. Not here. Doesn't exist. He's_ not _here._

"Kosari-chan," a female voice with matching red eyes that bore into the back of her head, "Come on. Please?"

Kosari doesn't give in. But, she doesn't object when their Genin sit beside her Genin and the two Jounin sit beside her and the eight uninvited shinobi take the food. Kurenai studies Kosari's Genin, "What happened to you three?"

"Evaluation," Hinata says sheepishly, "We passed by the skin of our teeth."

Kurenai's eyes widen, "Really? How?"

"I singed her hair," Sasuke says.

"You must be getting rusty," Asuma chuckles, "For you not to be dodging a Genin's attack."

Kosari shrugs. _Uchiha-san isn't a normal Genin. None of them are. If they were anything like normal Genin, I'd have actually killed them._ After all, she hadn't dodged because she'd been intrigued by what Sasuke was planning. The idea was worth rewarding and she gave it to them. But, she knows it isn't going to be as easy as this.

The faintest glimmer of a smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. _Let's keep that a secret for now._

* * *

"Right, so," Kosari pulls out a nail filer and examines her nails, "Clean up that river, from here until the waterfall."

Naruto steps towards her to argue, but Hinata grabs his shoulder, "Naruto-san, this is only the ninth D-Rank. Have a little more patience. It's what she said, after all. You should have a little more faith in her judgment," then she purses her lips, "We'll get something more interesting soon," Hinata sighs and if Naruto weren't so close, he wouldn't have heard 'I hope' from her.

Naruto nods, mainly for her sake, and slowly begins to stab empty cans and soggy paper with a rod and taps it into the basket on his back. He glances at Kosari every so often and confidence roars in his ears. She doesn't even notice. He giggles before summoning ten clones. The clones quickly zip around the river and pick at each piece of trash.

"Uzumaki-san," Kosari calls out.

Naruto pales. All of the clones rush over to him to dump the trash in his basket. Before he can jump away, something explodes a foot away from him and he skips on the surface of the water and the current carries all of the trash away. Naruto scrambles to his feet. Terror pushes him to run faster and throws himself with his basket in his fingers at the floating trash. He succeeds in getting the trash in his basket, but finds himself staring down at calmer waters seventy feet away. It shortens to sixty feet and a shocked scream sounds from the boy. He shuts his eyes, ready to plunge painfully into the unwelcoming water. Something grabs his ankles and he cautiously opens his eyes and looks up.

"Idiot," Sasuke growls, holding one ankle. Hinata gives him a humored look while holding his other ankle.

Hinata and Sasuke catapult Naruto and he lands with a large splash. Kosari squats on the surface of the water and looks down at Naruto, who floats with his basket in his arms. The Jounin makes a face, "Uzumaki-san, please think things through. Uzumaki are known to be a little extreme, but try not to do that again. I don't like explaining in gruesome detail how and why you lost limbs."

"Uzumaki…" Naruto furrows his brows, "Huh?"

Kosari hauls him up, "Good job, all of you. The river is clean from here to the waterfall, not a single hair or hide of trash. Let's go back and deliver our report and—"

A man appears in front of Kosari. He crosses his arms in a smug manner and Kosari's face drains of any emotion, even though she hadn't shown any on her face when she'd hauled Naruto up, "State your name and purpose."

The man grins behind his mask, "Aw, Hound, don't be like that," he glances at the Genin, "These your Genin? Man, you've fallen _low_. Who woulda thought the great and terrifying Hound would be saddled with Genin, right?" he snickers, "I can't wait to tell all of those recruits about you. Also, that boy with the broken foot died of infection and the second boy you threw over the railing survived. So much for being absolute."

Hound's fingers itch to kill him. Kosari keeps calm; he'd just be more pleased if she broke his arms. Kosari repeats herself, "State your name and purpose."

"Hey, leave Kosari-sensei alone," Naruto stomps towards the ANBU. The ANBU takes the boy and slams him against a tree and steps on him, cracking a rib and squeezing all of the air from him. Kosari doesn't move.

"Naruto-san!" Hinata cries and runs towards the ANBU with hate in her eyes. Veins bulge around her eyes and he sinks a punch in her stomach and sends her flying to the other side of the river.

Sasuke glares at the two holes and shakes with rage, but doesn't move.

"So you _can_ do something right!" the man exclaims with faux admiration, "At least the brat behind you isn't stupid. I just hope you don't make him stupid."

"Please state your name and purpose," Kosari says calmly, but Sasuke can hear the murderous edge in her voice. He stays back.

"Right, right," the man steps down harder on Naruto, "Second-in-command of ANBU Black Ops: Hawk. I came just to tell you about how the Hokage wants to talk to you about something really _really_ dull," the man drawls and examines his nails despite the glove covering them with a sigh, "And how this one guy with, like, silver hair and one eye covered got dragged away by a Sannin with white hair for some reconnaissance thing on, like, criminals."

Kosari sees the entire world in various shades of red and _I'm going to kill him!_ Her muscles tense and her nails dig into her palms and blood drips out. The ANBU enjoys the fiery, hateful anger right beneath her calm exterior. "Thank you, Hawk-san, for informing me of Hokage-sama's summons. I will arrive in his office momentarily," Kosari bows deeply. Hawk scowls at her respectful tone and gesture and flickers away.

Kosari keeps herself from shaking with rage and orders, "Uchiha-san, please retrieve Hyuuga-san and follow me to the hospital," she picks up Naruto and ignores his demands to be let down. She walks into the hospital and catches the head of the hospital's eye. "Nohara-san, please take care of Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata; they have overexerted themselves during training. I will come back later," Kosari flickers away. Rin doesn't like the furious glint in the Hatake's eyes, but Naruto's yelp in pain as he tries to sit up distracts her.

* * *

"Hokage-sama!" Kosari bursts through the door and sees Kurenai and Asuma standing there. Kosari ignores their surprised looks and seethes, "Where is Hatake Kakashi?"

Hiruzen leans forward in his chair, "In the village. Why do you ask?"

"Please don't lie to me, Hokage-sama," Kosari says, barely containing her anger, "Where is Hatake Kakashi?"

The old man sighs, "Kosari, Kakashi is fine. Who implied otherwise?"

"That doesn't matter," Kosari says, "What matters," she slams a hand on his desk, "Is that you tell me _exactly_ where Hatake Kakashi is."

"Kosari-chan, calm down. I saw Kakashi walking around the market before I came up here," Kurenai says, "Just—"

"I do not trust information without solid proof behind it," Kosari cuts her off, "Hokage-sama, why did Jiraiya-sama take Hatake Kakashi on a reconnaissance mission?" _Do you want to kill him that badly?_

Hiruzen doesn't respond. A 'tch' leaves Kosari's mouth and she turns and grabs the handle of the door and runs out of the Hokage tower. She darts through streets and over buildings and her heart sinks when she sees the green gates guarded by a layer of ANBU. By the time she lands, electricity is crackling around her and murder is clear in her eyes, "Move."

The ANBU are silent and unmoving. Kosari flickers and breaks several ANBUs' arms and shatters several masks. ANBU writhe on the floor in pain, but the ones still standing unleash waves of fire and earth at her. _Insolence!_ She pushes chakra to her feet and dodges the earth and dispels the fire with a hand glowing with chakra. She races towards the doton user and spins on her heels to knock down the others like pins.

A blinding pain rips through her body and she falls to her hands and knees and sees a familiar cane in her line of sight, "Raise your head."

Kosari obeys and sees Danzo, "D-Danzo-sama…"

Danzo looks at her. _Hawk has already informed her, then._ "What is wrong?"

"Hokage-sama authorized for Jiraiya-sama to take Hatake Kakashi out of the village on a dangerous reconnaissance mission, ranked higher than S-Rank," Kosari pushes down nausea, "Permission to speak freely, Danzo-sama?"

"Yes," Danzo says.

"How dare he take Hatake Kakashi out on a mission like this! Hatake Kakashi has not been in ANBU for years and his skills for high-risk missions are rusty. Hatake Kakashi is one of our most important shinobi and for Hokage-sama to authorize such a lethal thing is horrendous! I…I cannot understand his reasoning," Kosari says, venom dripping from her voice. "Why didn't he send me? I have more recent experience and have a lower chance of dying than Hatake Kakashi. Hatake Kakashi could've temporarily taken over the duty of instructing Team 7 while I was out on reconnaissance. Instead, Hokage-sama insists on obstructing the village's peace and order and insists that things work backwards and make it harder for both Hatake Kakashi and I to work under optimum conditions and use our abilities to the fullest."

Danzo can't help but relish in her words. She may not be under his close supervision anymore, but her loyalty is just as strong as ever. He knows for a fact that if she'd been sent on the recon mission instead of Kakashi, both Uchiha murderers would be dead and Konoha would have a more assured peace. In that regard, Danzo can't agree with her more.

"I didn't send you because your Genin would be in danger," a voice responds, "You may deny this, but the bond that is strengthening day by day with them is much, much more powerful than anything Kakashi could've done to protect them if you had gone. Have faith in Jiraiya; he is more than capable to protect Kakashi," white robes rustle in the breeze. Kosari doesn't look at her Kage.

Something snaps in Kosari and she simply pushes herself to stand, bows at Danzo, and flickers away. She enters the hospital and Rin is waiting. "Kosari-chan, that was quick…" the medic feels chills of dread go down her spine.

"Please forgive my lateness," Kosari bows. She doesn't hear Rin's words or her own words. Rin nods uneasily and leads the woman to a room where two men are already in. Before Rin can explain that both of her Genin will be fine, Hiashi slams Kosari against a wall, "How could you let this happen?!"

One part of Kosari wishes he just squeezed her neck harder and killed her, but another part feels a strange warmth. Her entire body heats up and Kosari hears herself responding, "I pushed them too hard during training today. You have my sincerest apologies."

"Let go of Kosari-sensei!" a boy says.

Rin pries the man off with a shout. Hiashi lets go and Kosari's eyes sweep across the room as she hears coughing and wheezing. A man with kind black eyes and greying hair and wrinkles that adds twenty years to his age places a hand on her shoulder and gives her a smile. Kosari regards him with no expression. Sasuke gets up from his chair and looks at his instructor, who looks as if she'd awoken from a nightmare of unimaginable horror. "Kosari-sensei," he says. She doesn't look at him. Her eyes are fixed on a monitor. "Kosari-sensei," he repeats. Silence.

"Kosari-sensei," he grits his teeth, "Hey!"

Silence.

Anger pulses through the boy and before he knows it, he sinks a kunai into her leg and she falls. Blood seeps into her pant leg and she winces, "That hurt."

"What's with you?" Sasuke demands, squatting to her eye-level. He flinches when he sees the same empty look he had when he awoke in the hospital and learned that apart from a man he wasn't really related to, he was alone. Not even his childhood friend, three years his junior, had survived. Sasuke knew that; he'd seen Uchiha Shisui stab his friend, five at the time, over and over and over again, but the realization that it wasn't some horrible genjutsu took away any sort of glimmer of joy from him. "What happened?" Sasuke asks, a hint of panic in his voice.

"Nothing," Kosari says, mainly to convince herself. _It's not real. Not real._

Kosari blinks and finds herself sitting on a chair and seeing Rin rip her pant leg, exposing the large gash. Alcohol is poured on her wound and she cringes in pain. She rubs salve in gently before wrapping the woman's leg in white bandages. "Are you okay?"  
"Yeah," Kosari responds, mainly to convince herself.

"Maybe I should call Kakashi to—"  
"No!" Kosari snaps. Rin furrows her brows and opens her mouth to say something, but Kosari quickly adds, "N-no. That won't be necessary. I'm fine. Thank you, Nohara-san."  
Kosari tries to stand, but hisses as pain shoots through her. Rin shakes her head, "Really, I can call Kakashi. It won't be a bother to me."

"It's fine," Kosari says, "Wouldn't want to interrupt him and his books," Kosari forces out a light laugh and eye-smiles.

Rin sighs, "You don't look so good. I'll go get him, okay? Just stay here," Rin leaves.

The Hyuuga man crosses his arms, "What did you do to my daughter? It looks like she was punched and kicked across a training ground."

"Taijutsu practice. Her taijutsu skill is higher than her teammates, so I decided to give Uchiha-san and Uzumaki-san a demonstration. It seems that I took it a little too far," Kosari says, lying through her teeth. The man is easily swayed and puffs out his chest a little when she praises Hinata's skill, which equates to all his hard work training his daughter.

"You did, obviously," the man says.

"Forgive me," Kosari says.  
"But, I'm glad that Sasuke wasn't injured," the man continues.

"I see the Hyuuga and Uchiha clans' relations are improving," Kosari says hollowly, "I'm glad."

The Hyuuga man pulls the curtains around his daughter's bed for privacy and Kosari is left to stare at Sasuke, since Naruto is the farthest and out of her vision from Hinata's curtains. The black-eyed man smiles again at her and Kosari returns the smile out of politeness. 'What is your name?'

"Kosari," Kosari replies, reading the ANBU signs.

Sasuke eyes her warily, "How'd you understand that?"

"I used to be an ANBU. It seems Uchiha-sama here may have been one as well," Kosari replies.

"Were you?" Sasuke asks Kagami.

'My son was,' Kagami signs.

Kosari feels a lump well up in her throat, "He says his son was."

"Shisui…" Sasuke mutters darkly under his breath. "The bastard."

'Did something happen to Kakashi?' Kagami asks.

'No,' Kosari replies, 'He's just a little under the weather. Just a mild fever. He'll be fine, but right now he's in no condition to carry me.'

"What did he say?" Sasuke asks eagerly.

"He says that he learned ANBU sign language during the Second War for security purposes and I responded that I learned it after the Third War," Kosari lies.

'I highly doubt you'll be able to walk up twenty flights of stairs with that wound. I trained Sasuke a little too well and it looks like he reached down all the way to your bone. There's plenty of room at the Uchiha compound, just a little ways away from here. I have a spare room I keep clean, in case Sasuke ever has company,' Kagami offers, 'I insist.'

Kosari wants to say no, but he has a point. "It's amazing that you were able to learn both Iwagakure's and Sunagakure's ANBU sign language without them knowing. No wonder we won the war. If you don't mind, I'd like to learn their ANBU sign language as well."

Sasuke looks at his 'grandfather' in surprise. "You were able to learn both of them?"

Kagami nods, going along with Kosari's lie. Kagami nods at Kosari, agreeing, 'You can sling your arm around my shoulder if you need it.'

"Oh, really? I'd be honored," Kosari says, "Thank you for the offer, Uchiha-sama. I certainly hope I won't be a burden tonight."

"You're staying at the compound?" Sasuke asks.

"Uchiha-sama is graciously letting me," Kosari says, "Plus, it doesn't look like Hyuuga-san or Uzumaki-san will be let out today, so it's just as well."


	4. Chapter 4

"Do you really think this 'spy' exists?" Genma sighs, running a finger on the flat side of his kunai. He looks bored, and he is.

Ao looks at his friend with a worried expression, "Genma, don't say stuff like that. If Hokage-sama wants us to be on the lookout, he isn't kidding. Plus, you don't know where they might be hiding."

Genma scowls, "I think being in Torture and Investigation is getting to you. You're too paranoid. If this spy were really lurking around here, wouldn't Hokage-sama say something about any recently stolen documents? It's been two months since he gave that speech and I haven't sensed anything amiss. Have _you_?"

Ao scratches his neck before shaking his head, "So? If it's been two months and we haven't sensed anything, then the spy is extremely well integrated. Hound might be still on the lookout, but with her team, I don't think she's prioritizing the spy as much as she is training that team. She's relying a great deal on us. Plus, she exploded when she heard about Kakashi leaving to spy on the Akatsuki. She's not in any kind of position to look for this spy."  
Genma scoffs, "I think she'll be quite motivated. The spy is probably working for the Akatsuki or Orochimaru. Kakashi's absence alone makes her angrier, especially after she said what she said about her being an ANBU preventing his death. She cares a lot about Kakashi, more than any of us could imagine. With him gone spying on the very things that could kill him, the least she could do is look for the spy and protect him from here."

Ao blinks, "That's…true."

"So," Genma digs a pointed finger in his friend's shoulder, "If not even she has found the spy, there must not really be a spy."

"I'm not totally convinced," Ao sighs, "But you definitely have a point."

* * *

"How'd you get up so quickly?" Hinata shields her eyes with a hand from the sun and looks up at Naruto in astonishment.

Naruto scratches the back of his neck, "Practice?"

Kosari knows it isn't just that. She briefly looks at her other two Genin before looking back at Naruto. Sasuke and Hinata are quickly catching up to Naruto, but not fast enough. Kosari throws a kunai and it cuts the boy's cheek, "A vantage point has its pros and cons. Pro: you can see people and things that are farther away. Con: those people can see you. If they can see you, they can strike. In a tree, it's a little like being a sitting duck if you're not in a densely forested area. Be aware of any attack."

Kosari flings several kunai at him, which he deflects with his own kunai. The boy swings down and lands rather ungracefully on the ground. He rubs a skinned knee and blows on it, cringing at the pain. He covers it with a hand. Kosari grabs his wrist and stares curiously at the open wound and watches in fascination as it closes right before her eyes. _Amazing._

"K-kosari-sensei, a scratch like this isn't… _that_ interesting, is it?" Naruto asks uneasily.

Kosari lets go, "Well, since you're done with what I'd initially planned, I suppose I can move on to walking on water."

"Don't leave us behind!" Hinata calls out, "Wait for us!"

"Why?" Kosari says, incredulous, "Just treat this as motivation to master this quicker." Kosari doesn't mention anything regarding how her expectations for the two clan children were much higher. As far as she knew, Naruto received no formal training from anyone while Hinata had her overbearing father and Sasuke had the great Uchiha Kagami, comrade to Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Council, and Shimura Danzo all to himself.

Kosari leads Naruto to a gently flowing river and smirks at him, "Strip."

"W-what?" Naruto's face turns as red as his hair.

"You're going to fall in and you'll get sopping wet and it'll suck for you if you have to trudge home in soaked clothes," Kosari says.

"Oh," Naruto says, but eyes her with suspicion, "Fine," he takes off his shirt and pants and throws them down on the ground before stepping into the shallow end of the frigid water. He cringes, "Now what?"

"Apply the same concept," Kosari says, "You have to release chakra from your feet and step onto the surface. It'll be harder, though, because of the uneven surface and depending on the current and waves that may come, you'll have to adjust the amount at a moment's notice. After you get the hang of this, I'll be simulating a real battle scene for you. But, go on, try it," she gestures for him to move about.

The boy does and hesitantly begins.

In the meantime, Kosari looks at the messy pile of wrinkled clothes and frowns at them. Before she knows it, she's folded them and has thread, the kind medics use to close up wounds, and a needle and is stitching up holes. She feels someone watching her and sheepishly looks up. Naruto is standing not quite on the surface and is dripping wet. He looks at the woman with a newfound sense of fear, "Kosari-sensei…what are you doing?"

Kosari pushes down embarrassment before glaring at him, "What are _you_ doing? Go back to practicing. I won't buy you any free ramen if you don't."

The prospect of free ramen causes Naruto to practice twice as hard. Kosari returns to her work and as the sun is setting, she finds that she not only has repaired every single hole, but has also stitched his name on the inside of his shirt and pants and even the inside straps of his shoes.

"Thanks," Naruto mutters, snatching it away from her. Kosari crosses her arms, "What else did you expect me to do? With the three of you going so slowly, I've got nothing better to do."

"Hobbies?" Naruto arches a brow as he tugs his shirt into place.

Kosari looks at the orange sun, "I don't have any."

"Why?" Naruto asks, shocked. "What have you been doing before you were our sensei?"

"Other shinobi work," Kosari says. "I didn't have time to think about those kinds of things."

Naruto rolls his eyes, "With this kind of stitching work, you should join some convalescent home to knit or something," then he grins, "But that free ramen deal is still on right?"

"You didn't master this yet," Kosari points out.

"Yeah, I know that," Naruto says childishly, "But, for the future, right?"

Kosari rolls her eyes, "Yes, for the future. Go on, go home. You're dismissed."

Kosari walks past him and approaches her other two students, "Did you two master it?"

Hinata wipes sweat from her brow, "Yes," she smiles genuinely.

"Show me, both of you," Kosari says.

The two are too eager to comply and race up the tree covered in marks from the kunai they'd used to mark their progress. Kosari watches as they make it all the way up and all the way down. She nods at both of them, "Good job. Tomorrow, meet up for a mission. Dismissed."

Hinata and Naruto walk away towards the residential districts. Kosari leans against a tree and crosses her arms with half-lidded eyes, "Uchiha-san, what is it? You've been uneasy ever since a few days ago when I stayed the night at the Uchiha compound. It isn't because of the body they found floating in the lake, is it?"

Kosari recalls the woman's body ANBU had found floating in the lake. _The woman had been brutally beaten and stabbed. When they found her, she was still warm. The soil around the edge of the lake and blood on the dock showed obvious signs of a struggle. The woman didn't want to die, much like all of the Uchiha five years ago._

"No," Sasuke snaps, "I'm not some kid afraid of some random dead woman."

Kosari understands. _Because he saw his own mother, dead. Hell, his entire clan over and over._ "So what is it? Uchiha-sama is waiting for you."

"It's just…" Sasuke sighs, annoyed at himself for not spitting it out, "Never mind."

Kosari nods, furrowing her brows, "Okay. See you tomorrow, then?"

"Yeah," Sasuke says and in the blink of an eye, she disappears in a flicker.

* * *

Sasuke tosses and turns in his sleep. It isn't just because Kagami is still at the Police Headquarters, helping some of the newer officers orient themselves. Sweat runs down his face and into the furrow between his brows. Something dark, but so bright, rips through his dream and the boy bolts straight up and pants. His breaths come out ragged before he swallows and calms down a little. He looks around and sees faint outlines of his room from the soft moonlight.

 _A dream…_ Yet, it was so real. _I would rather see my own parents' deaths than see my best friend's death over and over again. I'll kill my brother for my parents' deaths and kill Shisui for my best friend's death. Shirusu was so young, younger than I was, had his whole life ahead of him, and should've been spared._

Sasuke grips the covers until his knuckles turn white. "Damn."

It was the same nightmare as the one after he'd passed Kosari's evaluation. Seeing Naruto's death, however annoying and lacking of understandability he was, set him off. More specifically, it reignites all those bad memories of his clan's demise and Itachi's genjutsu. Just being around Kosari makes his skin crawl.

Sasuke pushes off the covers and stands. He wanders through the house, feeling his way around until he can reach the kitchen to get a drink of water and try to remind himself that it was a nightmare. A nightmare. It can't possibly hurt him.

He trips over something and inadvertently slams into a bookshelf before landing on the ground with a painful thud. A thick rectangle of paper hits his head and lands in front of his face. The moonlight illuminates the waxy paper and Sasuke gazes at the paper, no, photograph. He grimaces; it was the one that gave him nightmares.

It's a photo, worn at the edges, of Shisui playing with his friend. Sasuke's blood boils. It's revolting to Sasuke for Shisui to be playing with his own _son,_ a boy named Uchiha Shirusu, mere weeks before he stabs the (then) five-year-old over and over without a shred of remorse. Shisui had played the kind and proud father ever since the boy's birth up until the day he defected from the village. In sharp contrast, the boy's mother was never in any of the photos. Sasuke wonders bleakly if Shisui had done away with his wife before the massacre. It wouldn't surprise him in the least; Shisui was hiding his murderous and cruel side, just as Itachi had until he killed their parents.

* * *

 _Coffee._

Kosari ladles an off-white batter into an oiled pan and watches as the batter solidifies and puffs up. Bubbles rise and pop, leaving empty holes. Kosari takes a pair of chopsticks, not necessarily the most ideal utensil in her opinion but it does the job, and flips it over. She grins at the scent of the…pastry, she supposes, and stirs her cup of steaming coffee with another hand. She used to like coffee diluted with milk and sugar, but after the apple and, really, five years of not tasting sugar, sweet things had to be either unsweetened or eaten in tandem with unsweetened coffee or tea.  
And, because coffee staves off sleep (the ally of the enemy, for the enemy can strike while one nods off) she prefers it. A stack of around twenty of the puffy, golden brown pastries is rounded off with yet another from the pan. Kosari carefully lifts the plate and watches nervously as the tower of pastries wobbles and quivers, threatening to fall. She manages to make it to the low table, not her ideal table but it does the job, and places the plate down. She takes a sip of her coffee with her free hand and sighs in content.

 _Coffee._

She grabs softened butter and slathers it on generously. She trots to the fridge and grabs a metal tin with a dark and thick and sticky and shiny liquid inside and inhales deeply. She hadn't opened it since before she entered ANBU. She places a small spoon inside and carefully and frugally drizzles it on. Her knife cuts a piece and she grabs her chopsticks, ready to finally eat—

"Hey, Hound. You got a minute?" someone knocks at the door.

How dare… _the nerve!_ She was about to _I was about to eat!_

"Yes," Kosari responds and stands. Before she can take one more step towards the door, the door is kicked in and Kosari looks at Anko with pure malice, "Mitarashi-san, replacement doors cost 5,000 ryo."

"Nice place," Genma steps in and pushes the senbon in the corner of his mouth to the other side of his mouth, "A little dusty and barren, though. You don't own much, do you?" and it's a genuine question. "Kakashi's place is a little more customized, what with the bookshelves and such."

"What is that?" Anko points at the tall stack of pastries, "What…what is it? I've never, ever seen anything like this…ever."

"Experiments," Kosari says curtly, "Why did you two come?"

Anko's eyes glitter, "The spy. You're the only other one we can talk to."

"What about Ao-san?" Kosari asks.

"That's the thing," Genma sighs, "He didn't show up today. I looked all around for him, and he's just…gone."

Kosari doesn't understand, "Are you implying that he's the spy or that the spy may have taken him? Did Hokage-sama send him on a mission?"

"You haven't any leads?" Genma asks.

"Answer my question," Kosari says, "And I'll answer yours."

Anko snickers. Genma takes out his senbon and eyes the pastries. Kosari rolls her eyes, exasperated and wished they would simply leave, and leans against her fridge with her arms crossed, "Come on, spit it out."

Genma shakes his head, "No."

"Well," Kosari scratches her birthmark, "Not really. Just a few."

"Who?" Anko asks. "Truth be told, I haven't gotten very far."

Kosari looks up at her ceiling.

 _I didn't just waste all that time I couldn't sleep. I figured that the spy was either a former ally, like a Konoha shinobi that was lured or persuaded to work for the enemy, or a foreigner, like a merchant, who blended in well with Konoha society and was familiar enough with the society to stay undetected within the village for two months. I'd ruled out the Jounin that the Hokage had summoned before I was deployed to the Land of Iron, so it meant that the spy was a Jounin of a clearance level 13 or lower, such as a Chuunin of a clearance level of 10 or higher. That narrowed down my search within the general shinobi population somewhat. But this would only be truly helpful if my only enemy was the Akatsuki. Orochimaru's spy would also fit perfectly within these parameters, but something else narrows down my search even further: Orochimaru's spy is embedded within areas that have access to confidential records of shinobi that carry or carried kekkei genkai, like the hospital, Torture and Investigation, First and Second-in-Command ANBU Black Ops and the warden of the Prison. Meaning, the head of the hospital, the leader of the medic corps, any Jounin or Chuunin in T &I, Monkey, Hawk, and the warden. _

Kosari narrows her eyes at a spider crawling above.

 _Nohara Rin's apartment doesn't contain anything regarding anything except medical textbooks, scrolls, and a few scattered papers about the hospital and training new staff. Her chakra system wasn't disrupted in the slightest, so no genjutsu. She's an unlikely candidate with many friends, even the Genjutsu Mistress Yūhi Kurenai, that would sense even the slightest change in her. Her counterpart, a man named Yamagata Ochiru, the leader of the medic corps, doesn't have high enough clearance. Recently, within T &I, a wave of new prospective underlings has joined. All of them are new Chuunin and lack any sort of information or clearance. Moreno Ibiki, four of his Jounin and two of his Chuunin assistants could potentially be the spies, especially because their high esteem among the Hokage and his Elders and Council could wave off any infraction or…slip-up the spy has. With Monkey and Hawk under Danzo-sama's close supervision, it's incredibly doubtful. Lastly, the warden of the Prison hasn't returned to Konoha due to a vacation for over a month. That time period makes him an unlikely candidate._

"It's bothering me a little that I haven't had enough time to look into this thoroughly because of my preoccupation with my team," Kosari sends up a senbon and stabs the spider's head, "But, there's evidence that an unauthorized person infiltrated confidential files of around two hundred patients in the hospital and used both Nohara Rin and Yamagata Ochiru's passwords to get access to the files. Moreno Ibiki, his four Jounin assistants, and two Chuunin assistants may also be the spy. To some extent, Nohara Rin could be an unwitting accomplice, but that's beside the issue," Kosari says. "The warden could be the spy as well. He's been gone for over a month, meaning that he could've gathered information quickly within the first month and then gone back to the Akatsuki or Orochimaru during the second month to help plan their next move."

"Sorry, Kosari-chan," Anko laughs, "I kinda doubted you, being such a stiff ANBU and all. You're pretty capable."

"I'm just following standard reconnaissance procedure," Kosari mutters, "Did you have any lead whatsoever?"

"No, not really. But to think that spies could be in my Division is kinda scary," Anko laughs and laughs.

"The other thing that bothers me more is that there could be domestic allies within the village, especially the border corps, for both the Akatsuki and Orochimaru. In regards to the Akatsuki, it could be anyone letting the spy or an Akatsuki member in and out of the village undetected within the border corps, or any merchant that's stayed in Konoha for a series of extended periods of time. In other words, a nondescript merchant that's got experience trading with Konoha and has a six-month visa or a twelve-month one. I didn't have enough time to look into the sheer number of merchants that have these kinds of visas. The spies could be living right next door and I wouldn't know, at least not now," Kosari purses her lips.

"Is this all you two came for?" Kosari asks, arching a brow, "I was busy."

"With?" Anko presses.

"Eating," Kosari says flatly, "So unless you have some miraculous information, you two have my permission to leave."

"So pushy," Genma says.

"Can I have one?!" Anko asks impatiently. Before Kosari can say 'no' and throw her out of her apartment, Anko devours five of them. Kosari drops to her knees, "N-no…t-those are mine…" and all color drains from her face.

"What's this?" Anko looks at the tin with the thick liquid and dips a finger in. Kosari lunges at her, "Don't eat that!"

Anko's reflexes kick in and pin the Jounin to the ground. Kosari glares, but darkness envelops her vision before she can fight back.

* * *

Kosari opens her eyes. Pain and darkness are all she knows for a moment until her ears are assaulted by a loud crash and she turns away from the bright light. Weakness rings throughout her body and she groans, having never felt her chakra as far away from her as it did now. _Military grade suppressors…I think…but…why?_

 _Where was I?_

Kosari hesitantly opens her eyes and sees a figure kneeling before her. Her eyes trail from the feet, clad in shinobi sandals, up the pants that are covered from the mid-thigh up by some sort of black cloth. Her heart stops when she settles on the face. It's a man with kind black eyes and his youth stolen from him and not a hint of malice in them.

Uchiha Itachi.

"I apprehended the two impostors," he says softly.

Kosari doesn't want to respond. She wants to just flicker away, or simply run, but without chakra and her arms far apart and restrained tightly, there's only two ways out: cooperating with Uchiha Itachi, the man that destroyed his entire clan, or death. Death would've been a good way out two months ago, when she'd been in ANBU. But now, death is a last resort, especially with the fact that Hiruzen had ordered her to take up Kakashi's team. And, dying would mean that she couldn't sink her fingers into the spy that dared infiltrate Konoha and give information to the enemy that Kakashi is much, much too close to. Just the notion of knowing that the spy is still alive makes her sick. Death, she decides, is not an option. As much as she doesn't want to admit, cooperation is her only way out. That, and a little bit of luck that Itachi doesn't kill her first. _And I have really, really shitty luck._

"Why?" Kosari asks tonelessly, from one former ANBU to another.

"Because they were in my way. I have a proposition," Itachi says.

Kosari looks at his hands, "Why me? Why not someone else?"

Itachi's lips quirk up in amusement, "You know why."

 _You're so easy to read. Getting close to me means getting close to Sasuke and Naruto._ "What's your proposition?" Kosari intones.

"No need to be so formal, Kosari-senpai," Itachi gives her a smile. "Orochimaru is a problem, not only because he used to be a member of the Akatsuki—"

Kosari's stomach drops. _They know we know about them. Fuck. Shit. Damn it! Kakashi…_

"—but also because of his recent movements and interest in kekkei genkai. He is a problem both to the Akatsuki and to Konoha as well. My proposition is this: in exchange for the sparing of Hatake Kakashi's life, which I can guarantee, the Akatsuki's spies will eliminate Orochimaru's spies, keep them out of Konoha, and will help to keep Orochimaru himself away from any kekkei genkai possessors. You, on the other hand, will do two things: keep the remaining Uchiha out of Orochimaru's grasp and…follow any orders."

Kosari feels sick, "What does that mean, 'follow any orders'?"

Itachi furrows his brows slightly, "There's a seal on your back that allows for an Uchiha, after performing a certain series of seals, to give an order and you must conform to the order."

Kosari's eyes widen and she meets his black ones, "No…"

Itachi looks at the woman carefully. He opens his mouth to say something, but she cuts him off, "That seal was deactivated when Uchiha Fugaku died."

"His death doesn't affect this," Itachi says simply. "Will you agree or not? You don't have to; Konoha is well off and you're quite capable in finding the spies and fortifying Konoha's security. However, the problem for you is whether or not you can both protect and prepare Uzumaki Naruto in such a small timeframe and keep the entirety of Konoha safe from Orochimaru, regardless of Kakashi. But, every shinobi has a breaking point, and Hatake Kakashi, the last of your family, is yours. His death will severely inhibit your productivity and ability to instruct your Genin team and protect Konoha."

Kosari grits her teeth to the point where Itachi can hear it. He lowers his eyes at the woman and wishes he could apologize. But, that would make her less likely to agree to his terms.

 _For Kakashi, for Team 7, for Konoha…_ Kosari looks him in the eye, "I agree."

Itachi nods, "I'll reactivate the seal, then."

Kosari's arm restraints are removed. She kneels while Itachi steps behind her, "Take off your vest, and anything underneath."

Kosari feels her face heat up childishly, but she complies volitionally and holds her clothes to her chest tightly. Itachi frowns, "Forgive me, but this will hurt."

Kosari senses him prick his finger on a kunai and feels his glowing red sharingan eyes on her back with fading intricate black markings. He goes over them carefully in his own blood before bringing out a vial of someone else's blood and tracing it over only partly once more. He goes through a series of complicated seals before slamming both of his hands onto her back. As his chakra glows and sears her back, reaffirming the seal, she holds in a scream of pain. She can feel the ink and blood mixing in with her own repressed chakra and binding to her in; an agonizing white-hot sealing. Her body shakes with pain until Itachi lets go. It still burns painfully, but at least the source of the pain: the terribly foreign chakra intertwining with her own is gone.

Itachi examines the work. Flawless, of course, but he didn't expect her to bleed from the edges of where the ink was. Then again, it might've been due to the fact she was covered in somewhat recovering bruises and her chakra system was severely damaged to begin with (perhaps chakra exhaustion, he thinks) and his chakra and blood might've exacerbated her wounds, "Kosari-senpai, let go of your clothes and raise your arms," Itachi takes out a roll of bandages and carefully wraps the woman's torso in the thin white cotton strips. He ties it off and kneels in front of the woman after she pulls on her clothes, "Also, one more thing."  
"What?" Kosari eyes him warily as he takes off her chakra suppressors.

"Don't tell anyone what happened here," Itachi says seriously.

 _Because it would jeopardize our agreement._ Kosari nods, "I know," she sighs and before she can stop herself, her eyes roll into the back of her head and she falls forward. Itachi catches her and whisks her away to her apartment. Too many traps litter her windowsill when he gracefully lands in and a kunai stabs his leg and a senbon nicks his cheek. The Uchiha frowns slightly before placing the woman on her bed and vanishes into thin air.

* * *

"…burning up…"

 _So cold…too cold…_

"…find something…"

 _Too warm…but…_

"What?!...blow up…"

 _Important…something's important…_

She reflexively turns away when something beyond icy touches her forehead. Something much too warm grabs her shoulders and pushes her down, keeping her in place. A sense of dissatisfaction and frustration bubbles up in her chest too quickly and she shudders alarmingly.

Kosari opens her eyes hesitantly and in a haze, she saw the world before her swimming and spinning. She focuses on two white dots close to her and furrows her brows in confusion. _What…is that?_ After a few minutes of staring, the dots form eyes, surrounded by a fair skin tone slightly tanned by the sun and somewhat spiky brown hair. It's a man and the more she stares, the more she thinks she might know him.

"I'm…Kosari," she says, barely able to hear her own voice.

"I know," the man says kindly. "Don't you remember me?"

Kosari frowns, deep in thought. Her obsidian eyes shine sickly in the dim light. Her search through her many memories derails when she sees bright colors in the edge of her vision. She turns her head, wincing in pain, and sees red, blue, purple, white, and black. She blinks slowly, unsure of what it is and her heart rate jumps in panic.

 _Where am I? Who is this? Why am I in so much pain? Why is it so cold and so warm? Why can't I remember who he is? Why can't I see? Why…why can't I remember something important?_

"I-I'm sorry…but I have to go…I've got to do something," Kosari says aloud. "It's important…"

The man doesn't let up his smile, "You can go do that later. For now, just stay here."

Kosari's heart is pounding in her ears and she tries to scuttle away, but a terrifying sluggishness and weakness that she can't begin to explain keeps her pinned down. "Who are you?" she asks.  
"Hm?" the man doesn't seem to hear her.

"Who are you?" Kosari asks again, her voice growing shrill and soaking in panic and fear. Her eyes grow wide, "Who are you?!"

"Shh, calm down," the man says, "I'm Hyuuga Ko. It's been a long time, but we first met in the Academy. At first, you didn't speak a word. I thought you were just shy, but it turned out that you didn't speak very well. In fact, not at all. I don't know what other language there is in the world besides the one I'm speaking, but as you can probably tell, you became indistinguishable from a native speaker. Anyway, we graduated the same year and we had the same sensei. Time passed and I went back to my clan to help train the patriarch's children while you joined ANBU Black Ops. And then, you became Team 7's sensei."

Kosari's panic subsides somewhat, "Ko-san…I see," she licks her parched lips, "Why are you here?"

"Well," he turns, a whirlpool and muddle of color in Kosari's eyes, "Drink some water," he brings a cup to her lips, raises her head, and supports her shaking body. She downs it quickly and he lets go, "You didn't show up for a mission with your team. Your team reported this to the Hokage, who gave them your address. They found you running a very high fever with chills on your bed, wearing ripped and bloodstained pants and singed shirt. Naturally, they were alarmed, especially when they saw the state of your apartment, with some sort of food littered on the floor, the door kicked in, weapons lying around haphazardly, and bloodstains on the floor and walls. Naruto and Sasuke were kind enough to change you into different clothes while Hinata-sama hurried to get me, a medic," Ko holds her hand tightly, "I have a question for you."

Kosari feels a wave of panic rush over her, "No. I don't like questions."

"Nothing bad is going to happen," he says, smiling a little. _I'd always liked her, being on the same team and all, but I'd never expect the strong Kosari to be so childlike. It's almost…_ "I promise. No one is going to hurt you. But, you have to tell me what happened. And, what is underneath the bandages around your torso?"

Kosari tries to turn away from him and curl up, but his rough hands hold her in place. He turns over the cloth on her forehead and she shivers at the cold and damp feeling cloth.

"Kosari, tell me. Please," Ko insists.

"I don't remember," Kosari says simply.

"Are you sure?" Ko asks, desperate to find whoever hurt her and _end_ them. She nods.

"Where's my team?" Kosari asks.

"We're right here, Kosari-sensei," Naruto replies. Kosari's eyes slide over to the voice and she sees hazy figures sitting on her floor. Naruto's blue eyes and red hair come into focus. He stands and looms over her. She has enough sense about her to glare, "What?" and she doesn't phrase it like a question.

"Are you sure you're alright? I mean, that no one hurt you?" Naruto asks solemnly.

"Please go teach Hyuuga-san and—" Kosari wheezes painfully, "Uchiha-san water walking. I'll show you what to do next later. I expect the three of you to have water walking down to an art form—" Kosari coughs, "By the time I get over this. So go."

The three Genin nod and leave, somewhat apprehensively. Sasuke narrows his eyes at her, but she seems to look straight through him as if he were a ghost. The three disappear and leave the two Jounin.

Ko runs a hand through his hair, "I'll go get your door fixed. Just…don't move."

Kosari rolls her eyes. _Like I could._ "Yeah."

* * *

Hiruzen blows out a few rings of smoke before stamping his signature on a few hundred documents within the space of a minute. He'd had enough practice even before Minato took the hat. He places the papers into a box labeled 'outgoing' for his secretary to sort later and breathes a sigh of relief, ignoring the cold stare that the other piles of paperwork are giving him.

"Hokage-sama, there's something you should see," an ANBU flickers in front of him. Hiruzen sighs. _Just when I thought I could relax._

"Fine," Hiruzen says and stands. "Show me."

The ANBU nods and leads the Hokage to an alley where two mangled bodies lay. An ANBU with a hawk mask holds up a plastic bag with various papers in it. Kagami leans against a wall, glaring at the bodies with his sharingan. Hiruzen swallows. _This can't be good._

"What is it?" Hiruzen asks the ANBU.

"Top-secret papers, stolen, of information of a few high-clearance Jounin's kekkei genkai," Hawk says formally.

Hiruzen looks at the bodies and then at Kagami, "Where there any witnesses?"

'No,' Kagami responds.

"Hokage-sama!" a few Jounin run up to the man. Hiruzen pushes them back before they can lay eyes on the scene. He regards them with a concerned but irritated look, "What's wrong?"

"Anko, Genma, and Ao are missing! We've looked all over for them and they've simply vanished!" Kurenai says, frantic. "I've asked everyone I can find about them, and no one knows a thing."

 _Anko, Ao, and Kosari were the ones I entrusted with being the one to do away with any spies._ "And Kosari?"

"I can't find her either, "Kurenai says," But I looked in Kakashi's apartment just to see if she was there, and she wasn't, but his entire apartment looked as if someone had broken in and turned the whole place upside down. Someone was looking for something in his apartment, and that someone was skilled enough to evade all of his traps. I can't say anything for sure, but I can't help but think that all of this is related."

Hiruzen purses his lips, "Follow me," Hiruzen soars over rooftops and his white robes wave as he pushes forward with Kurenai, Asuma, and Gai following closely. The Kage practically flies up stairs and storms through a hallway. Ahead, he can see Hyuuga Ko nailing a nail in a hinge. He looks up and sees the grim faces of the four people in front of him and pales. "What happened?"

Without a response, Hiruzen bursts through the newly repaired door to see Kosari, a thin form under her blankets, shaking. To Hiruzen, it's both a relief and a concern, "Ko, what in Kami's name happened to her?"

"I don't know," Ko admits. "All I know is that her team found her in ripped and bloodstained clothes and bandages around her entire torso and with a burning fever. Her apartment was a mess, her door was kicked in, weapons littered the ground, and bloodstains everywhere, like she'd been attacked. I really don't know what happened."

Hiruzen places a hand on his head, "I'll explain later, to all of you, but could I ask you a favor Ko?"

"Yes, of course," Ko says, putting down the box of nails and hammer on the counter and brushes off his hands on his pants, walking over to Hiruzen. The man suddenly tackles Ko in a chokehold. His chakra flares and killer intent floods the room. Kurenai, Asuma, and Gai can barely breathe.

"Kakashi…" Kosari meekly whispers, her shaking stopping momentarily.

Ko flails, his eyes wide in horror. "I…I'm not…"

A few agonizing minutes pass until Hiruzen lets go. Ko coughs and wheezes as the color returns to his face. Hiruzen starts to apologize, but Ko holds up a hand, "It's fine. I understand. What did you want me to do?"

"Take Kosari to the Hyuuga compound. If Hiashi refuses, tell him to talk to me. Make sure nothing happens to her. No one is allowed to have any contact with her except you. Is that clear?" Hiruzen's voice is cold and deadly serious.

"Yes, sir," Ko says. He gathers Kosari in his arms, noting how worryingly light she is, and disappears. Hiruzen shakes his head and mutters, "The way I see it, Orochimaru's spies or the Akatsuki's spies must know we're on to them. This is only a warning. We need to find these spies before more things like this happen. At this rate, we're looking at all out war with Orochimaru and the Akatsuki," Hiruzen sighs deeply, "But before we do anything rash, we've got to wait for Kosari to recover enough to tell us what happened. In the meantime, Asuma," he looks at his son, "Summon the Council and clan heads. Send word for Jiraiya and Kakashi to return to the village."

"Yes, sir," Asuma leaves, along with the other Jounin. Hiruzen looks around Kosari's apartment before leaving, locking her door with a seal.

 _Itachi, Shisui, I don't think I can keep my promise after all. I'm so, so sorry._


	5. Chapter 5

_Be on high alert, he says._ Hiashi shakes his head as he eats his dinner. Hiashi doesn't want to believe his Hokage that peace is slipping away faster than he can grasp the idea of war again, much less with the two Uchiha criminals and a whole slew of other criminals and Orochimaru's pets.

"Tou-sama, is something the matter?" Hinata asks, the only other person in the room. Hanabi had already been transferred to the Branch family after Hinata expressed a sudden burst in potential.

Hiashi trusts his daughter, but doesn't want to tell her what truly happened, especially with the bodies the ANBU found, "That woman Ko is harboring…it unsettles me."

Hinata tries to cover up her smile, "Kosari-sensei isn't married, from what I can tell. And, Hokage-sama's orders were for him to be the only one able to have contact with her, right? I'm somewhat concerned, if not only for Kosari-sensei's incapacitated state."

Hiashi nods, "I've been thinking the same thing as well. A half-Hyuuga child is blasphemous enough, a dilution of our pure blood, but out of wedlock? It's beyond obscene."

"But, Tou-sama, what exactly is wrong with her?" Hinata asks curiously.

"Ko won't say a word. But, with my byakugan, I could tell that Kosari's chakra system was badly burned. I'm not sure if she was in an altercation with another shinobi or if something truly terrible happened," Hiashi says as he finishes up his meal, "You're dismissed, Hinata."  
"Thank you, Tou-sama," Hinata stands and leaves her father to his own thoughts. The girl quickly backtracks around the huge compound and goes to the second floor, where a few empty storage rooms were. She lifts a few floorboards and then slides over a ceiling panel ever so slightly. Eavesdropping, or as Hinata likes to put it, intelligence gathering is a necessary skill.

"…it's alright. It was just a nightmare," Hinata hears Ko's soothing voice.

"Y-yeah," Kosari mutters, tucking away her fear. Her fever had gone down somewhat, but it often spiked during the evenings, sweeping the woman off her feet often without warning. Her chakra was recovering, but not as quickly as she'd hoped.

Ko bites his lips before gathering up courage, "Do you want to talk about it?"

ANBU Kosari would've never agreed, but her fever distorts her thoughts and decisions, "It's stupid to be scared by something so long ago…" Kosari sighs.

Ko shakes his head, "We're teammates and fellow Jounin. And, you're here until you recover so you might as well get it off your chest."

Kosari purses her lips. _'Don't tell anyone…'_ Itachi's words echo in her head. She shakes her head uneasily, "Sorry, Ko. It was just about spiders. I hate them."

Ko smiles through the rejection, "It's fine. Just rest for now, ne? I'll come back with some medicine in a minute," and he leaves.

Kosari runs a hand through her hair. _This seal…it's forbidden. It will tie me to Itachi until I die. But, this seal wouldn't have been able to reactivate if I had even a hint of hesitation or refusal in my heart. It's a seal for making the perfect servant or soldier. All those years ago, I don't know what I was thinking. Fugaku only wanted the money from all the missions I took as an ANBU. He didn't care about my life; I was his puppet. His orders were for me to take up as many S-Rank missions as I could and give him the money, all because his clan was aging too quickly and not enough young shinobi were taking up enough high-paying missions. But, I thought that it would help my family and because Minato was almost family, having helped me discreetly to keep Kakashi alive, he could tell Fugaku to let me have a break once in a while. Once he died, I was completely at Fugaku's disposal. I worked day after day, week after week, month after year for five straight years until…_

Kosari finds herself in a corner in the darkness with her fever spiking again. She could barely move, much less sense Ko coming back through the hallway.

"Until that man…the man tried to kill me and," Kosari holds out a hand without a gold band, "Destroyed everything. The Third War was hell on earth, but that was nothing compared to what he did."  
"Kosari?"

"Ko," Kosari replies as tears run down her face, "Why? Why did he destroy everything?"

"What?" Ko's eyes widen as he makes his way towards her, "Who?"

Kosari sobs harder, "Shirusu's father. Shisui burned Hiashi-sama's wife to death and murdered his clan and…"

Ko wraps his arms around the Hatake, "The night of the Uchiha massacre…tell me." "I was kinda glad when Fugaku-sama died, when his house was set ablaze by Itachi, but only minutes later, I see Hiashi-sama's wife burned to death by _him_ and then he turns to me and smiles. He said…he said he wasn't sorry. I tried to get away. I ran as fast as I could because I was free. I had Shirusu and his little sister in my arms and I sense kunai and shuriken and flames coming so I dodge most of them but one kunai was thrown so hard that it was able to fracture a rib. But, I was glad, because Shirusu was safe and alive. Suddenly, I'm tackled and I lose my grip on the two kids and I'm pinned to the ground with Shirusu watching in complete horror. I was stabbed sixty-eight times with a kunai dipped in poison. It hurt…I can't tell you how much it hurt, Ko. I couldn't move from all the poison and I watch as he runs a sword through Shirusu's stomach. His little sister, just a few months old, is crying and crying and cries harder when Shirusu's blood drips down onto her. Shirusu is screaming for help, for _me_ , because the ground around me was doused in oil and I was surrounded by fire. He screams bloody murder because he can't believe I was murdered—he thinks I died, and I should've at that point—by Shisui and screams and screams for help and tears run down his face…but how could a five-year-old understand? He can't grasp that he was going to die right then and there. To me, that's what gives me nightmares. I saw and felt his fear and betrayal. All of a sudden, he goes still and his sister stops crying. Because he's _dead._ He isn't alive anymore, Ko. He's _dead!_ I start screaming because I couldn't believe what was happening and because I was dying, but I was forced to stare into those eyes…they weren't Uchiha Shisui's. It was a stranger, a murderer. I wake up and see Kakashi sitting on a chair beside me. A month, he said. Because of the genjutsu, he said. Oh, Ko, I saw that death over and over and over again for a _month_. I didn't know how much Kakashi had worried. And, he's gone. He's as good as dead," Kosari sobs in Ko's arms.

"I…I had no idea," Ko admits, "I never knew how much Shisui had hurt you."

Kosari shakes her head, "He didn't hurt me. He hurt Shirusu. Shirusu didn't deserve to die. He was so young, younger than Uchiha Sasuke-san, and much younger than I was. If I could go back, I would've made sure he lived at the cost of my own life. But…Ko," Kosari's black eyes look into his white eyes, "Why? Why was Shisui so mean? Why did he kill him? Why…why did he try to kill me? And, why am I still alive? I shouldn't be."

Ko hugs her tightly as anger and hatred for the Uchiha man bubbles up in his heart. Kosari shakes with chills and pain from the memory and his arms pressing on her tender back and sobs. Ko grits his teeth, "I promise he won't ever hurt you. Never again. If I see him, I'll rip him apart. You don't need to shed any more tears," he wipes away her tears with a thumb, "Don't worry, Kosari. I'll destroy him."

Kosari nods minutely and sees Ko start to close the gap between them. She can't refuse; she'd pressed herself up against the wall. Ko pulls her even closer and kisses her. A tear runs down her face. Kosari wanted to push him away, but a voice in her head tells her she shouldn't. Ko is her only teammate left, and someone she can trust. _Can I?_ Ko is someone who cares about her, if healing her and bringing her medicine and being so kind are any indications. _Can I?_

Kosari hesitantly closes her eyes and relaxes in his grip. No harm will come to her while Ko is around. The seal on her back starts to burn and she breaks the kiss, shutting her eyes harder in pain, "W-water…please…"

"Y-yeah," Ko says as he tries to hide the butterflies in his chest that light up his face a deep crimson. An indescribable happiness blossoms in him and he can barely keep a grin from his face. He just kissed the girl he's had a crush on forever! He hands her a glass of water and she takes it. It shatters in her hands and she stares at it, shocked.

"Sorry," she mumbles.

"It's fine," Ko says dreamily as he flicks on the light and picks up the shards of glass. Kosari winces at the light and in a feverish haze feels Ko gently set her down on a futon and places a cool and damp cloth on her head, covering her forehead and eyes, "Rest, Kosari. I'll wake you up in a few hours to take your medicine."

Kosari drifts off into a dreamless sleep again.

Up on the second floor, Hinata is shocked. Having the byakugan gave her an edge in darkess; even without it being activated she could see a little in the dark. The fading sun's glimmer illuminated even the dark Hyuuga hair and it lit up Kosari's silver hair. _I never knew Kosari-sensei saw Kaa-sama's death. If I could just get her to tell me about Kaa-sama's death and about Shisui and how to kill him…_

Hinata's blood boils at the thought of the man that killed her mother. _And, who is this 'Shirusu' person? Well, at any rate, I should tell Sasuke. Sasuke might have more information on Shisui and can confirm my hunch that Shirusu or Kosari-sensei could be Shisui's weak point._

Hinata silently leaves her compound and rushes to the Uchiha compound. Only one house has the lights on and she knocks, "Sasuke-san! There's something I need to talk to you about."

A few moments later, Sasuke opens the door cautiously with narrowed eyes, "What do you want?"

"Can I come in?" Hinata answers his question with her own.

"First Naruto and then you…tch," Sasuke mutters and lets her in, where Naruto is sitting at a low table with an older man.

Hinata enters and slips off her shoes. Sasuke crosses his arms, "Well?"  
"In private," Hinata glances at Naruto. Sasuke rolls his eyes dramatically before leading her to an empty bedroom and closes the sliding door, "What?" he asks angrily.

"Kosari-sensei is staying in my clan's compound, with Ko, the medic I brought. She kept babbling about nonsense, until she mentioned not only my mother's death, but also Uchiha Shisui. She said that she was the one who tried to save some little kid named Shirusu. I have a hunch…that this Shirusu might just be the key to taking down Shisui," Hinata says.

Sasuke's face darkens, "Get out."

"What?" Hinata's eyes widen. Then she scowls, "I'm the only one doing anything productive! Shisui took away my mother from me and took away your clan from you!"

Sasuke raises a fist to punch her, but Naruto catches it, "Hinata, Shirusu was Sasuke's best friend…and Shisui's son. It's not the kind of thing Sasuke likes to talk about. But, since Sasuke won't talk about it, I will."  
"Naruto," Sasuke snarls and jerks back his hand, "Don't you dare…"

"Hinata was clearly eavesdropping on Kosari-sensei's conversation with that Hyuuga guy. She might have some useful information. I don't like this Shisui either. I'll hear her out; you can just listen through the door."

Naruto pushes Sasuke out of the empty room and slides the door closed. He sits, looking at the Hyuuga girl, "What exactly did she say?"

"During one of her feverish episodes, Kosari-sensei recalled the night of the Uchiha massacre. She said that she was the one who carried Shirusu and his little sister away from what I suppose must've been the compound while Shisui was hot on her heels and throwing anything and everything in his arsenal to stop her. A kunai fractured a rib and she was tackled, letting go of the children. Shisui stabbed her over and over with poison-laden kunai and set the ground around her on fire. She watched as Shisui stabbed Shirusu, who was screaming for help. But, both of the children died and Shisui put Kosari-sensei in a month-long genjutsu," Hinata says, "That's it," Hinata pushes down a blush, remembering what had happened after that. Then she furrows her brows, "How come you knew about Shirusu?"

"Sasuke and I have been friends for a long time. On the few occasions I went to his house before the massacre, I saw this Shirusu kid. He was always picked on by the older kids for being some half-Uchiha and disgrace to the clan for living or something. Shisui was always in the compound, though, as a Second-in-Command Police Chief, so he always rescued his kid. I don't know about this little sister he had, but Shisui really seemed to adore Shirusu. When I asked Shirusu about his mom, the kid just exploded, saying how I had no right to ask that kind of thing and demanded to know what it was like to have a mom who was never home and probably dead," Naruto smiles grimly, "I never told him how wrong he was, though. I would've asked him what it was like to not have anyone, but I didn't. It wasn't all that important. At least he had a dad, I thought. So much for that," Naruto laughs emptily.

"Sasuke-san must tell you a lot," Hinata notes.

"More or less," Naruto says. Then he grins, "You know what I've been thinking?"

"What?" Hinata asks, eager.

"What if it was Shisui who attacked Kosari-sensei? It wouldn't be much of a stretch either; if Shisui was able to stab her over and over, then maybe he was able to hurt her badly enough for her entire back to be hurt. Maybe he burned her. And all the memories flooding back are what might be triggering her fever, in addition to her burned back," Naruto says.

Hinata cups her chin, "Maybe."

The door slides open softly and both Genin jump. An old man looks at both of them with cold eyes glistening with unshed tears. He strides over, takes their arms roughly and drags them out. He thrusts them out and places their shoes outside the door and slams it.

"Who…who was that?" Hinata stares disbelievingly at the door.

"Uchiha Kagami," Naruto sighs as he takes his shoes and slips them on, "Shisui's father. I don't think he liked us talking about his dead grandchildren, or any theories of what happened to Kosari-sensei. Sasuke told me once that Kosari-sensei is friends, to some extent, with Kagami."

"Oh," Hinata says softly, "We should apologize."

Naruto shakes his head, "We should leave him alone. We shouldn't sadden him more," he starts walking out of the compound, "Come on, Hinata. I'll walk you home."

* * *

"Spies have greatly infiltrated our shinobi ranks," Hiruzen laces his fingers together and looks at the group of shinobi around the table. Tea sits in everyone's cups, but no one drinks. It's too tense and serious to relax. "Just when peace seemed to finally be settling in, several Jounin were attacked and killed."

Hiashi harrumphs, "Is that why you've ordered Ko to be some ill Jounin's caretaker?" "Yes," Hiruzen says, "She is the only one to have survived an attack from, what I presume, are attacks from spies."

"Where are these spies from, exactly?" Shikaku asks, more annoyed than usual. _Why wasn't I briefed on this? I'm the damn overseer of the Jounin corps._

"Orochimaru's personal spies sent to steal information on the village's past and present kekkei genkai," Hiruzen is tempted to take a sip, but doesn't, "And, an organization called 'Akatsuki', comprised solely of S-Ranked criminals. They have sent spies to gather information on bijuu, including our own Kyuubi."

"We need to shore up our borders immediately," Choza says.

"And have all ANBU purge the village of spies," Inoichi says, "My clan can search hundreds of minds per day to ensure we have the spy in custody or not."

"While that may be true, we cannot have the other nations know that we are vulnerable," Hiruzen replies. "And, we cannot have every single civilian and shinobi have their minds scanned; we'd eventually have a civil war on our hands."

* * *

Outside the Hokage tower, a blue yukata-clad figure dashed up the stairs and ran down the hall to the meeting room. Several voices, some outraged, could be heard. The figure sighs before knocking once. The entire room goes silent.

"Enter," Hiruzen orders.

A woman with bandages covering all of her exposed skin except her head enters and bows deeply, "Forgive my lateness, Hokage-sama."

"Who're you?" Chouza demands, his face red from anger.

"This is the Jounin that survived being attacked by spies," Hiruzen raises a brow, "Correct?"

"Yes, sir," she says as she swallows double the dose of medicine.

A wave of almost tangible anger, disbelief, and curiosity comes crashing down on her. She takes the last seat at the table, next to Shikaku. The man eyes her bandages warily.

"Just who were these spies?" Danzo queries and his eye glints.

"Impostors of Mitarashi Anko and Shiranui Genma. They had come to my apartment brashly and asked if I knew anything or had any leads regarding the spies. I presume Hokage-sama has already explained the reason and existence of the spies within Konoha," she looks around the table calmly.

"I did," Hiruzen says gruffly, looking at Danzo out of the corner of his eye. "Continue."

"I was foolish to let my guard down, but Mitarashi Anko was one of three Jounin entrusted with what to do after a spy was caught. In addition, to this reasoning, the two mentioned the disappearance of the other Jounin entrusted with what to do after a spy was caught, Yamashiro Aoba, a close friend of Shiranui Genma's. I admitted I didn't have any solid leads due to being preoccupied with Team 7's training. Shortly after that, I was tackled and lost consciousness. I awoke in my own apartment some time later," she finishes. "I believe they may have been Orochimaru's spies, but I can't confirm this."  
"They were," Hiruzen says. "But you have some sort of lead, correct?"

"Yes," she says, "For the Akatsuki, the spy would be a shinobi with a clearance level 13, or for mere observation, it could be nearly anyone. However, it's doubtful that the Akatsuki would send anyone superficial; they'd want more important information gathered by someone with skill in espionage, reconnaissance, and evasion. For Orochimaru, his spy would also fit these shinobi parameters, but his keen interest in kekkei genkai can further narrow down the search. His spy is embedded within areas that have access to confidential records of shinobi that carry or carried kekkei genkai. These areas include the hospital, Torture and Investigation, First and Second-in-Command ANBU Black Ops, and the warden of the Prison. In other words, the head of the hospital, leader of the medic corps, any Jounin or Chuunin in T&I, two ANBU Black Ops, and the warden."

Kosari takes a sip of tea, feeling sick from taking too much of the medicine.

"Nohara Rin's apartment doesn't contain anything regarding anything except medical textbooks, scrolls, and a few scattered papers about the hospital and training new staff. Her chakra system wasn't disrupted in the slightest, so no genjutsu. She's an unlikely candidate with many friends, even the Genjutsu Mistress Yūhi Kurenai that would sense even the slightest change in her. Yamagata Ochiru, the leader of the medic corps, doesn't have high enough clearance—"

Kosari coughs into her sleeve and her head spins painfully, "—and, recently, within T&I, a wave of new prospective underlings has joined. All of them are new Chuunin and lack any sort of information or clearance. Moreno Ibiki, four of his Jounin and two of his Chuunin assistants could potentially be the spies because their clearance is high enough, and especially because their high esteem among the Hokage, his Elders, and Council could wave off any slip-up the spy has. Monkey and Hawk, the two ANBU Black Ops I mentioned, are under Danzo-sama's close supervision, so it's incredibly doubtful. Lastly, the warden of the Prison hasn't returned to Konoha due to a vacation for over a month. That time period makes him an unlikely candidate."

Kosari pours herself another cup of tea and downs it greedily, "Despite this, there's evidence that an unauthorized person infiltrated confidential files of around two hundred patients in the hospital and used both Nohara Rin and Yamagata Ochiru's passwords to get access to the files. Moreno Ibiki, his four Jounin assistants, and two Chuunin assistants may also be the spy. To some extent, Nohara Rin could be an unwitting accomplice, but that's beside the issue," Kosari says. "The warden could be the spy as well. He's been gone for over a month, meaning that he could've gathered information quickly within the first month and then gone back to the Akatsuki or Orochimaru during the second month to help plan their next move."

The room goes silent for a few moments before Kosari clenches her fists in her lap, "Hokage-sama, may I ask you something?"

"You may," Hiruzen says, a little surprised she didn't refer to Danzo to ask.

"Because of this huge breach in security, has Elite Jounin Hatake Kakashi been called back?" Kosari asks, her voice unwavering but her eyes don't meet his.

Shikaku grunts next to her. _Thought so._

"Yes," Hiruzen says after a pause.

"Thank you," Kosari says, her voice full of gratefulness.

Shikaku coughs merely to bring the room to attention, "Hokage-sama, I believe I have a countermeasure."

"Go on," Hiruzen says, leaning forward in his chair, eager to hear what the Nara man has to say.

Shikaku looks at the woman, "Without this Jounin here."

Kosari's eyes widen, staring at her hands, not daring to look at her superior. _What…?_ "Very well," Hiruzen knows that whatever Shikaku has to say, it's going to be damn useful. Even if the Jounin that should have a large role in the discussion of what to do about the spies isn't present, "You're still unwell, obviously. Don't push yourself; you'll be let known of your role in this later."

"Yes, sir," she says in monotone.

* * *

Kosari pushes down her chakra as she reenters the Hyuuga compound, hopefully without Ko knowing she was gone. _He'd be so pissed…_ With a bead of sweat dropping down her face she tried not to smile at that. Ko was always so easy to rile up and Kushina-sensei did a fabulous job at fully exploiting that. The Hatake smiled at the memory of her sensei. Kind, but terrifying. So unlike Minato. But, she supposes, opposites attract. Minato was mild and calculating, but not in a cold Fugaku way. Just…smart.

Naruto is like that, to an extent, Kosari supposes.

She grasps the door she'd managed to unlock, but hesitates. Voices in her room resonate and after a few moments of listening, she realizes that it's Hinata and Ko.

"…-sama, please don't," Ko says, cautioning.

"Why not? I should be able to know more about my own mother's death," Hinata is incredulous, "Kosari-sensei had no right keeping the fact that she knew about her death from me. I bet she knows more than she knew. And, both of you seemed to know about this Shirusu kid. I found out that he's Shisui's son. I get a bad feeling that both of you have some sort of connection to Shisu, more—"

Kosari slams open the door, her eyes burning with anger and boring holes into Hinata's shocked face, "K-Kosari-sensei, how are you today?"  
"Eavesdropping," Kosari grinds out, "Why do you feel the need to investigate things in the past? You can't revive your mother and I can't revive Shirusu. Just let go of your petty revenge, girl. I can't have two kids on the same team with this much hate in their hearts; Uchiha-san is quite enough. Be grateful Shisui didn't try to kill _you_ ," bitterness rings out clearly in Kosari's voice. Her hands, balled at her sides, shake with anger. "Your clan is the richest in Konoha, you have a caring father, you have personal trainers and guards, and your family is still alive. You have everything you could want. Would your mother want you to be filled with disgusting rage and anger?"

"I…" Hinata looks at the ground before gritting her teeth, "What would a pathetic, disgraceful Jounin like you understand about me? Clan-less, family-less, lonely, and promiscuous! How could you understand what it's like to live in a clan with such high expectations and lethal punishments?!"

Kosari would've laughed if her chest didn't hurt so much from coughing and wheezing and simply breathing. She studies the girl for a moment before looking at Ko, "Ko-san, thank you for treating me. I won't need your help anymore," Kosari turns and begins to walk out of the compound. Hinata races towards her and tries to tackle her, only for Kosari to sidestep.

"Hey!" Hinata screams. A few Hyuuga look out of their windows and slide open doors to find out what all the commotion was.

"Forgive me, Hyuuga-san. I can't train you right now. Meet up on the training grounds tomorrow, ne?" Kosari puts on a smile, purely for effect. The Hyuuga frown at their heiress, shocked at her tone of voice and open anger at her teacher. Hinata knows what her clan members must be thinking and she shakes with fury.

"Sorry for my outburst, Kosari-sensei," Hinata bows deeply, "It won't happen again. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah," Kosari says and vanishes. Hinata stalks back to the Hyuuga training grounds and pummels the earth. Tears of anger and punches of bitterness distort her vision and the ground until night falls and she kneels, panting. _Damn you, Kosari-sensei._

* * *

Kosari picks up the food 'Anko' had eaten and pulls off the bandages around her hands and puts them in the trash. She ties up the bag and carries it down the hall to the receptacles.

"She didn't mean it."

Kosari flinches, letting go of the trash a moment too late and the metal swinging door of the receptacle catches her fingers, drawing blood. She ignores the pain and Ko steps towards her and holds her hand in both of his. A green light glows and lights up the dark hallway: medical ninjutsu. Before Kosari can respond, Ko closes the gap between them once more and his lips crash down on hers. She pushes him away and takes her hand back. "T-thanks for healing my hand."

Ko nods, watching her flinch under his gaze, "Do you want me to help clean up your apartment?"

"No," Kosari says with a tone of finality, "I've got other things to do. You don't have to apologize for Hyuuga-san; she's right. I wouldn't know what it's like to be her," Kosari shakes her head. She turns and heads back for her apartment. After a few paces, she stops and turns around and winces, "I'm sorry, Ko. I can't."

"It's fine," Ko says and watches her disappear into the darkness of the hallway. She opens her door and light illuminates her and makes her silver hair glow. She reenters without a second glance and closes the door with a soft click. He grits his teeth and can't push down a wave of nausea. He pushes the receptacle door open and empties his stomach contents. _Damn it…_

* * *

 _"Hokage-sama, please keep Sasuke safe," Itachi says._

 _"Yeah," Hiruzen grunts as the young ANBU flickers away. Only Shisui is left._

 _Shisui tries to keep his sobs in, "H-Hokage-sama…"_

 _Hiruzen turns around and sweeps the young man in an embrace. Shisui shakes violently as tears run down his face, "Please keep Shirusu and Yuuko and Kosari safe. Make sure Naruto and Sasuke are her students and make sure Kakashi stays alive for as long as possible. After all this…Shirusu and Yuuko and Kakashi are all Kosari has left. I know what I've done is unforgivable, but make sure nothing happens to her. Make sure that Danzo-sama doesn't make her into a mindless machine and make sure that my father is well and that the seal on her back is kept a secret that will die with us. Make sure that no one comes after her or Shirusu or Yuuko for their kekkei genkai and that no one tries to kidnap her or hurt her or torture her or kill her or—"_

 _"Shisui," Hiruzen says sharply, yet gently, "I understand."_

 _Tears of gratefulness run down his cheeks, "And, make sure that Orochimaru doesn't hurt her and make sure that the group she was forced to join during the War doesn't come after her…"_

 _"You have my word," Hiruzen says as the ANBU vanishes._

Hiruzen blows out a few rings of smoke as the bad memory resurfaces. Shisui had hopefully not realized that both of his children were dead. He hopes so much that the spies don't report something like that. If they did, Konoha is about to be wiped out. Shisui, though, had to know that Orochimaru was looking through Konoha's kekkei genkai. Hiruzen smiles grimly. If that were so, Orochimaru was either dead and Konoha didn't know about it yet or he was about to be.

Hiruzen had more reason for concern, however. The hawk that Kakashi was supposed to send a message back with, stating his current condition, hadn't come back. It had been fine weather the past few days and the hawk still had not returned. Either the hawk had encountered some sort of predator (although special seals prevented the hawk from being downed so easily) or, as Hiruzen hopes isn't the case, Kakashi is unable to respond. As if the Akatsuki had captured him.

Hiruzen chose to keep that thought from Kosari, knowing she'd gladly become a rogue shinobi if it meant saving Kakashi. Kakashi was, after all, truly the last thing Kosari had. Her mother and siblings were dead and her father had abandoned Kosari and Kakashi long ago.

The other thing that worried Hiruzen was the group that Kosari had been a part of during the war. Very, very few knew about her involvement in the most violent and brutal groups of supposed KIA and MIA shinobi. Only she, Shisui, Hiruzen, Danzo, Ko, and Rin knew about it. It was beyond Hiruzen of about how Kosari had kept it from Kakashi, but he didn't try to read the report when they'd gotten back with Kosari being dragged back half-alive.

Hiruzen sighs. He'd seen the way Kosari carried herself, her posture; when she'd entered the meeting room and how she took double the dose of medicine, specifically pain medication. Her bow looked somewhat unnatural, as if she were moving side to side, meandering, as she bowed instead of straight down. Her back must've been the problem, and he had a terrible feeling that something had gone wrong with the seal that was supposed to have disappeared after Fugaku died.

If the Akatsuki do enter the village, Hiruzen just hopes that Kosari isn't the one to see Shisui. The entire village might just blow up if she did and Shisui's death would be certain. Hiruzen had to admit that Kushina's team breaking up the way they did, with Ko as a lone medic, Kosari joining that organization before being dragged back by Ko and Shisui, and then Shisui's defection, was worse than his own team's.

Well, maybe not.

But, on the same par, he thinks.

* * *

Itachi pours Shisui a cup of tea and slides it over to him. Shisui reaches for the porcelain cup, but it shatters into several pieces. The Uchiha man flinches, shocked.

"Don't be so superstitious," Itachi chides.

"Y-yeah," Shisui says, "You're right."

Itachi knows Shisui doesn't believe him, "Let it go, Shisui. We've got more important things to do."


	6. Chapter 6

"Watch what you're doing," Sasuke hisses, a mock-glare digging into the kunai he'd thrown and impaled into Naruto's shoulder. Naruto takes it out with a wince before looking back at what was distracting him. Sasuke grudgingly follows his teammate's gaze to the two females on Team 7.

"Hinata seems to be fighting more aggressively," Naruto says as he presses down on his shoulder to stop the bleeding.

"So?" Sasuke crosses his arms atop the water's surface, "That's no excuse for you to be spacing out. Maybe Kosari-sensei struck some sort of nerve."

"Women," Naruto sighs, shaking his head, "I'll never understand."

In a flash, Naruto falls into the water and Hinata is sailing towards him from above. Her feet land on his chest and he flails, trying not to drown. Hinata glares with her byakugan, "You want to die too?!"

"Never take your eyes off your opponent!" Kosari declares and tackles the girl, pushing her into the water. Lightning crackles around the woman but she doesn't allow it to enter the water. Electrocution is a rather quick way to die. Hinata squirms out of the woman's grasp before regaining her footing on the surface of the water. She pants heavily and glares angrily at the Hatake, who squats on the surface and inspects her nails again. _Damn, I've got to file these again; ninja wire will get caught on them._

"Lesson four: don't take your eyes off your opponent," Kosari says and kicks both of her male students into the water. They clamber out of the water and stagger to their feet and cough out water, having been taken completely by surprise.

"Oh, you're all wet," Kosari looks up at them and blinks, "That's too bad. Well, until all of you dry off, spar on the surface. All weapons are allowed, but try not to dry up the river," Kosari looks over at Sasuke knowingly, "Begin!"

Kosari hops off the river and leans against a tree, allowing her face to contort into one of pain. _Still hasn't completely healed. The bruises are fading but I still feel as if my back is on fire._ She watches as her students whirl around with roundhouse kicks, sending anyone in their way skidding on the grass by the river and backflip away from one another before unleashing a barrage of weapons. Close combat had never been Naruto's strong point, but Kosari thinks it's interesting as he tries to mimic the two styles before him.

 _Maybe it's time to teach him his own style?_

Maybe not. Naruto is a smart kid; he's going to use the information before him in any way he could, manipulating what he had until he had something even better than what anyone else had. Orphans always did have too much time on their hands and if they didn't occupy their time with something productive, it would only spell trouble. Yet, Naruto didn't seem to fit that stereotype. Kosari had no idea what kind of childhood he led until the day she met him as a Genin with his team. And, honestly, was it that important? She had to deal with the Naruto of now, not the Naruto of yesterday or ten years ago.

Kosari weaves several signs before her chakra latches onto her students'. The three suddenly stop and sink into the water. The Jounin watches in amusement as Naruto and Sasuke sink much quicker than Hinata. The Uchiha clan prided themselves on their eyes, supposed unmatched genjutsu, and yet Sasuke fell so easily for it. Had he not unlocked his sharingan yet? Kosari occasionally saw him and Naruto training and training until well after the sun had set, so it was a reasonable guess that he had.

Maybe Sasuke just wasn't Itachi's brother. _It'll be better if he isn't._

Hinata suddenly gasps and clambers out of the water again. She shoots an angry glare at Kosari, who raises her brows innocently, "You…" she seethes. The two boys slowly come to their senses before coughing up water and watching Hinata shake with rage as she walks towards Kosari.

"You humiliated me in front of my clan!" Hinata yells, "You, an ignorant, judgmental, and promiscuous Jounin are nothing! And on top of that, you dare keep information from me about my own mother's death! Tell me now!" Hinata's face contorts into a wicked smirk, "Or are you too much of a coward? Should I get Ko to fuck the truth out of you?! Tell me what Uchiha Shisui's weak point is! Where is he?!"

Kosari coughs into a hand nonchalantly and places a hand on her hip, "Do you want to fight me that badly? Are you that humiliated? You're not shinobi material if you let a petty, ignorant, judgmental, and, Kami forbid, _promiscuous_ , Jounin get the best of you. I wasn't joking when I said that I was the state. I can do much more than just kill you," Kosari's eyes are cold, "Please watch your step."

Naruto turns to Sasuke and whispers, "What's 'promiscuous'?"

Sasuke's face flushes, "Hinata's accusing Kosari-sensei of…fooling around with a lot of guys."

"O-oh," Naruto steps back from the Uchiha, "It isn't…true is it?"  
"How should I know?" Sasuke snaps.

"I have much more political and financial power than someone like you," Hinata spits, "If you don't tell me, your entire life will be hell! All of your secrets, lovers, _everything_ , will be exposed to the entire world and defamation will be the last thing you'll be worried about!"

Kosari just looks at the girl. "I don't understand. Why is it that you're so much more fixated upon Uchiha Shisui, an S-Ranked Elite Jounin, a rogue, a criminal, than Uchiha-san? You're not the only one who has vengeance in mind; Uchiha-san has an even darker vendetta. If you can give me a reasonable response, I'll tell you what his weak point is."

 _I can't believe it…she is truly an idiot!_ "Fine," she crosses her arms, "My mother had trained under the Shodaime's wife during her childhood and learned a great deal of fuuinjutsu due to some agreement her clan and my clan had to improve relations. She was also friends with the Yondaime Hokage and his wife before I was born and often worked with them and their fuuinjutsu. Even after the Yondaime and his wife had given their lives to seal away the Kyuubi, their sealing work, their last project, was one in which my mother had helped to work out. Year after year passed and my mother worked tirelessly to solve it, saying it was because she wanted to help some shinobi who was being manipulated by the Uchiha. That shinobi was the Yondaime's wife's disciple. A day before the Uchiha massacre, my mother figured it out. The one person she wanted to share it with wasn't in Konoha; the student would return the next day. My mother waited by the gates for the student, but she didn't return. I got worried, so I left the compound to try to find her. She eventually began to walk back to the Hyuuga compound, but then she saw the student. She ran, saying she had solved it, but Uchiha Shisui stepped in the middle of the student and my mother. He burned her alive, along with the scroll he was carrying, before darting off. My mother was going to save someone after working day after day, _thanklessly,_ and was murdered right in front of me. My mother never met this shinobi she wanted to save. And even up to this day, I haven't ever heard a word of gratefulness from anyone, not even a pathetic Jounin like you. The least you could say is that you're sorry for my loss, but you're too busy with Ko and every other guy in Konoha," Hinata glares, "Isn't that right, _Kosari-sensei_?" Hinata says her teacher's name in a singsong sarcastic voice, dripping with venom.

Kosari can't move from her place. _Save…the Yondaime Hokage's wife's disciple…save someone from the Uchiha…_

"Right?" Hinata says again, louder. Kosari doesn't seem to hear her. "Hey! I told you the truth. Now it's your turn. Tell me his weakness!"

 _"Forgive me, Yondaime-sama," she bows deeply._

 _"What?" Minato frowns, "You've done nothing wrong. If you're talking about the war, it's fine. Don't worry about it. It's over now; there's nothing you should be ashamed of. Kakashi is still alive, thanks to you agreeing to an emergency blood transfusion. Rin said that you were a model patient," the blonde man says cheerfully. Then he notices the slim ring on her finger, "Oh, is that it?"_

 _Kosari doesn't move from her deep bow._

 _"You got engaged without telling me or Kushina?" Minato grins, "Really, you and Kakashi both. Don't work yourself up so much. Congratulations! Who's the lucky guy?"_

 _Kosari can't stop tears from falling from her face. Minato's grin falls and he quickly stands and places a finger under her chin, forcing her to look him in the eye, "What happened?" his voice is serious._

 _"I-I'm so sorry, Yondaime-sama," Kosari says again, shaking with fear._

 _"You can tell me anything," Minato says gently, "I promise nothing bad will happen."_

 _"The seal, the_ Seijou _…" Kosari whispers quickly, "The Uchiha clan is aging and can't support itself financially…"_

 _Minato's eyes widen, "That's an S-Rank forbidden seal. It's not…you didn't…"  
"I agreed," Kosari confesses as her voice breaks, "I had to."_

 _Minato holds her shoulders firmly and his piercing blue eyes stare into her black ones, glistening with tears, "I'll do what I can. I'm not sure what's gotten into Fugaku recently; he's been snapping at everything, even me. But, if his orders get to be too much of a strain on you and your health, tell me. He'll listen to me; I'm the Hokage, after all. I promise I'll find a way to take it off."_

 _"N-no," Kosari shakes her head, "If you do that…Fugaku-sama will…" Kosari places a hand on her stomach._

 _Minato pales before he embraces the young woman, "Don't worry, ok? I'll find a way."_

Kosari closes her eyes as the memory flashes through her head.

"Hey, Kosari-sensei, don't worry! I don't think you're 'promiscuous'!" Naruto says loudly. Sasuke whacks him upside the head, "Idiot!"

Kosari looks at the Hyuuga girl, "Uchiha Shisui's weakness is Elite Jounin Hatake Kakashi. That's your answer," Kosari says in a clipped tone.  
"Who is that?" Hinata asks.

"You asked what his weakness is, and I told you. Now, go back to the river. You three have more training to do," Kosari says coldly.

"Hey, Sasuke," Naruto looks over at him, "I don't think it worked."  
"Just shut up," Sasuke glares.

Hinata stubbornly doesn't move. Kosari glowers dangerously, "Lesson five: shinobi who cannot comply with orders are not only endangering their own lives, but also that of their comrades."  
"Is that a threat?" Hinata challenges.

Kosari doesn't answer her. She grits her teeth as the seal on her back viciously sinks its fangs into her and sucks out any patience she had. She flickers, grabs the Hyuuga girl, and throws her into the river. In a huge splash, Hinata lands on her back and gasps in pain. She quickly gets on the surface with a shocked expression, "What was that for?!"

"All three of your orders are to work together to defeat a shinobi of a much higher caliber," Kosari states formally as she grips ten kunai in each hand, flexing her fingers to fan out the kunai in her grasp, "Treat each hit you receive as a lost limb or sense. If you are blinded, you are to work together to compensate for that comarde's missing sense," Kosari releases her kunai with deadly accuracy.

The Genin barely dodge the kunai being thrown three times their own highest speed. Veins around Hinata's eyes bulge and she darts forward, away from the two boys. "Hey, Hinata!"

Hinata ignores them and her hands glow with chakra. Kosari narrows her eyes dangerously as a red haze in her vision curtains her thoughts. _Objective: subdue incoming female shinobi. Do not kill or lethally injure._

Kosari's body moves like water, fluidly moving around Hinata's limbs before snaking behind the girl and sending a punch to her gut. The girl is unconscious before she lands on the ground and rolls a few feet. Kosari surveys the girl's body. _Female shinobi has been subdued. Her breathing and heart rate are slightly elevated. Shinobi will not die due to her injuries. Next objective: relay information._

"The requirements set by the commanding Jounin have not been met," Kosari states, "Due to nonlethal injuries, Hyuuga Hinata cannot continue. We will convene tomorrow and repeat until the objective of defeating a shinobi of a much higher caliber, which may simply include landing a somewhat incapacitating blow, is achieved. Dismissed," Kosari turns on a heel and flickers away. _Report back to superiors for further instructions._

"What…what was that?" Naruto mumbles, shocked and horrified, "That…that wasn't Kosari-sensei."

Sasuke narrows his eyes, "Kagami-jiisan told me that Kosari-sensei used to be an ANBU. That must be how she used to be. I think what Hinata asked struck more than just a nerve."  
Someone else flickers by the river's edge. The hooded figure grabs Hinata before vanishing into thin air. Naruto runs towards the figure with a fist cocked back, but it's too late. Hinata is gone. "Hey!" Naruto yells, "Come back!"

"Sasuke, come on! Let's go!" Naruto is halfway to the tree line, ready to run after the kidnapper, "Come on!"  
Sasuke hesitates and Naruto gives up, running after the kidnapper without any sort of lead. Sasuke curses, "Idiot," the Uchiha boy grits his teeth before running after his teammate into the forest, "Naruto! Come back! You don't even know where they went!"

* * *

A knock comes to Kosari's door. She opens it cautiously. _Keep your guard up at all times; anyone can be an enemy. Trust no one._

It's Kagami, and he comes as the first few rays of dawn come. Kosari looks at him emotionlessly, "Good morning, Uchiha-sama."

'Sasuke never came home last night,' he signs.

"Perhaps he is training with Uzumaki-san," Kosari says.

'Today is the anniversary of the Uchiha massacre. He always comes with me to light incense at the shrine,' Kagami signs, getting impatient.

Kosari looks at him, not truly caring, "I see. Have you looked for him?"

'I'll get straight to the point: do you know where he is?'

"No," Kosari says. "I haven't seen him since he failed yesterday's assignment."

Kagami grits his teeth, 'Come with me.'

 _A subordinate must always follow the orders of a superior._ Kosari complies and locks her door behind her. Kagami's eyes turn blood red with three spinning tomoe. Kosari says nothing as she peers into the red sharingan. The man angrily motions for her to follow and is hopping over rooftops. Her body follows the man while her mind is elsewhere.

When Kagami arrives at the training ground that she'd left her team at the day before, Hiruzen and Hiashi are already there. Kosari is glad she hadn't changed out of her clothing the day before; the night had passed her by in an instant as she sat at her table, staring at the Kumo kunai.

"Where the hell is my daughter!?" Hiashi gets in Kosari's face, glowering down at the Jounin. Kosari chooses to remain unaffected.

"Hyuuga Hinata, Uzumaki Naruto, and Uchiha Sasuke failed yesterday's training objective. I stated we would repeat it again before dismissing them and leaving," Kosari says, "Therefore, do not know where Hyuuga Hinata is."

"Liar!" Hiashi yells, "Using Ko to get into the compound and act like some feeble woman; you're the spy, aren't you?! Orochimaru or Shisui just scuffed you up to make it look like you weren't! Where is my daughter?!"  
"Uchiha-sama, I do not believe Uchiha Sasuke or Uzumaki Naruto left this training ground yesterday," Kosari says, "Could you confirm that they are in the forest?"

Hiruzen flicks his wrist and an ANBU pulls the two Genin boys out of the forest. Kosari glances at the two boys, covered in twigs and leaves and a scrape from falling. They groan before slowly opening their eyes. Naruto rubs his eyes when the ANBU drops him on the ground unceremoniously and looks at the people around him. Naruto sees Kosari and blurts out, "Some guy took Hinata! We've gotta find her!"

Kosari imperceptibly nods before looking at Hiruzen, "Hokage-sama, what are your orders?"  
"Kosari…" Hiruzen's eyes widen before he purses his lips, "Monkey, have any of your ANBU teams found anything?"

"No, sir," Monkey responds, curiously studying at Hound's mask-less face.

"I can summon trackers," Kosari says formally.

"Do it," Hiruzen orders. Kosari complies before drawing a vial from her vest. She smears her thumb with it, kneels, and slams her hand on the ground, "Summoning Jutsu."

A small dog appears in a puff of smoke. He furrows his dots of eyebrows, "You're…the kid's sister. How…?"

"Pakkun," Kosari cuts him off, "I have a favor to ask you," she looks at Hiashi, "Hyuuga-sama, do you have anything of Hyuuga Hinata-san's to track her with?" he produces a cloth. She takes it and holds it out to the dog, "Pakkun, this is the scent of Hyuuga Hinata, a twelve-year-old female Genin who was kidnapped by an unknown shinobi. Could you track her?"

"Kid, you should really—"

"Can you?" Kosari presses.

He sniffs, "Y-yeah."  
"Good," Kosari says. "Can you smell her?"

"Yeah," Pakkun looks at Kakashi's sister strangely. "You doing alright, kid?"

"I'm fine," Kosari says sharply. She stands and looks at her Kage. Hiruzen hands her a scroll and she pockets it, "Get Hinata back."

"Kid," Pakkun barks, "Take what's clipped on my collar."  
"What is it?" Kosari already knows the answer as she takes the small parcel and places it into her vest.

"His eye," Pakkun says solemnly.

Kosari's eyes widen. The dog sees a cold fire light up behind her eyes until her veins course with rage so cold that he takes a step back, "H-hey—"  
"Pakkun, please lead me to where Hyuuga Hinata-san is," Kosari orders.

"Take Sasuke and Naruto with you," Hiruzen says gruffly. _Maybe having her Genin around her will keep her from murdering everyone that took Hinata. She's slipping…just what happened yesterday?_

"Yes, sir," Kosari says on impulse. She drags up Naruto and Sasuke and sends a pulse of chakra through them to fully wake them up. She looks into their eyes, "We are going to retrieve your teammate."

"And," Hiruzen says before she races off to carry out her orders, "Take Ko with you."

* * *

"Are you sure, sir?" Kurenai asks. Hiruzen nods from the mission desk. "Go on."

Kurenai hastily bows before following the tracker with Kiba and Shino following closely. Kiba looks at Kurenai's face, pulled slightly as she bites her lips, "Kurenai-sensei…where are we going? Why?"

"We are going to wherever my kikaichu bugs take us," Shino responds, "Why? Because that is where Haruno-san is."

"Huh?" Kiba asks, "You mean that rich princess ran away from Konoha?"

"Not exactly," Kurenai says as she follows he cloud of kikaichu bugs, "She was taken by her father's economic rivals. I have an idea of where she is, but it's far."

"Her father?" Kiba frowns, "I don't get any of this."

"Haruno Sakura's father is the founder of the Haruno merchant company, a company whose revenue holds up 80% of Konoha's economy. He has money in other lands as well and his reliability and success is mainly why people trust him with bringing high quality merchandise and money. Other lands don't have such a successful businessman and are envious of him. Other merchant companies from other lands see him as a rival, mainly because his name alone is worth more than a few million ryo. He has the power to bring in huge riches to any land he comes into. In addition, if other lands want to cripple Konoha and start a war, they could do so by hurting the Haruno Company. If the Haruno Company suffers, our economy suffers, and we won't have the money to ship in weapons. We'll have a lack of weapons and our shinobi won't be able to fight for very long and will die. We'll be hardly a threat to our enemies. They'll crush us and will take over Konoha and the Land of Fire. We will all die. Do you understand?" Kurenai glances at Kiba.

"Uh, sure. Sakura's dad is this rich guy who holds up Konoha's economy. His rivals want to take down Konoha to eliminate competition. So, they're hurting the CEO by taking Sakura," Kiba says. "So where do you think she is?"  
"The Land of Water," Kurenai says. "There's a shrewd tycoon named Gato that owns the entire economy there and wants to expand. I heard a rumor that he has a shinobi militia, which may be why none of the ANBU sensed her kidnapping."

"So that is why you didn't want us to come," Shino says, "Why? Because we do not know the strength of the shinobi or their numbers."

"Whatever, Shino," Kiba grins, "Akamaru and I'll take care of all of them! Right, Akamaru?" The dog barks atop the Genin's head.

"Yeah," Kurenai mutters. "Come on, let's pick up the pace. Build up your stamina."

An hour passes as they jump over branches in silence. Kurenai squints in the distance. _Is that…?_

"Kiba, who is up ahead?" Kurenai asks.

"Sasuke…and Naruto," Kiba says after a few sniffs, "I wonder why…"

Kurenai jumps ahead and within a few minutes she catches up to them, "Kosari-chan!"

Kosari stops on the branch she jumps onto and turns around, "Yūhi-san."

Kurenai frowns, "Where are you four going?" then she notices the dog, "Is that Kakashi's summon?"

"Please state your purpose in interrupting us," Kosari says with narrowed eyes.

"Huh? Kosari-chan…don't be so stilted," Kurenai laughs uneasily, "My team and I are searching for Sakura. I think she's in the Land of Water. What about you?"  
Kosari regards the Jounin for a moment before turning around and surging forward. Ko shakes his head at Kurenai before turning and following. Kurenai scowls, "Hey! Don't ignore me, Kosari-chan!"

Kosari doesn't turn around.

"I bet if I were Kakashi you wouldn't be acting on your high horse!" Kurenai calls out, "Just wait a minute!"

Kosari stops and whirls around. Kurenai is frozen when she senses the cold rage from the Elite Jounin with two levels of clearance above hers, "To ensure you're your mission is success, please return to your team. To ensure my mission is a success, I must work as quickly as possible. Please do not hinder me. If you do hinder me, you are obstructing me from completing my mission. Shinobi Code Article 1 Section 3 Clause 10 states that any shinobi, even a comrade, obstructing another shinobi's mission is an enemy to the state. Shinobi Code Article 1 Section 6 Clause 1 states that an enemy to the state is to be dealt with promptly and swiftly. Clause 2 states that the shinobi that is being obstructed may abandon or even kill the obstructing shinobi to ensure mission success. Yūhi-san, do you want to me to reinforce Clause 2 for you permanently?"

Kurenai is stunned. "Kosari…chan…what's gotten into you?"

"Kurenai, Hinata-sama was taken. I'm sorry, but we have to get her," Ko says, stepping in between the two kunoichi.

"R-right," Kurenai stutters, "Okay. I will. Thanks."

Ko nods and turns to Kosari, but she has already gone ahead. He pushes ahead and the two Genin fall into place on either side of him. Naruto looks at the Hyuuga, "What's with Kosari-sensei?"

Ko shakes his head. "It's not my place to say."

"Did Kurenai-sensei and her have some sort of falling out?" Naruto asks.

"I don't know, Naruto. I really, really don't know," Ko says, looking at the silver strands flying in the wind ahead of him.

* * *

A few days pass in a blur of trees with a backdrop of night and day.

Sasuke and Naruto are hastily packing up camp behind Ko. The Hyuuga glances worriedly at the Genin before turning his gaze to Kosari, who is perched atop a branch, looking out at the ocean before her. Dark circles were beginning to develop around the woman's eyes. Ko jumps on the branch and hesitantly approaches the woman, "Kosari, maybe you should let me—"

"That will not be necessary," Kosari says shortly. "Your job is simply to keep the two Genin alive. I will retrieve Hyuuga-san."

"Kosari," Ko says, starting to lose his patience, "Please. You've been running on nothing but sheer will for the past three days without a wink of sleep. You're driving yourself up a wall. Just…stop. I can take over this mission. You can stay here and—"  
"That," Kosari slowly turns to look at him, "Will not be necessary," Kosari looks _through_ him. Ko swallows hard and gathers up all of his courage. Kosari looks back out at the ocean, ignoring his existence. Ko's hand flies towards her face, aiming to literally slap some sense into her. She catches his wrist and a single black eye slides over to look at the offending hand, "Hyuuga-san, would you like for me to permanently reinforce Clause 2?"

"Yeah," Ko challenges, "You're obstructing yourself. You'll die before you finish this mission," veins around his eyes appear, "You're setting yourself up for failure and Hinata-sama will die, because of you."

A sickening snap resounds. Ko lets out a cry of pain and shock, looking at Kosari disbelievingly, "Kosari…you just…"

"Pakkun, Hyuuga Ko has been injured on a mission. Shinobi Code Article 1 Section 4 Clause 4 states that any shinobi injured or otherwise unable to aid in the success of a mission and/or becomes a hindrance because of said injury must be left behind by his comrades to allow the mission to be completed," Kosari states, "Let us continue, Pakkun," and she surges forward with the dog bounding ahead of her, leading her to the scent.

Ko jumps down to the Genin and his free hand engulfs his broken wrist in a green light, "Come on, we're going after her," Ko says as veins around his eyes rise.

* * *

"Gato-san, I'm afraid some shinobi have docked," a boy turns to look at the short smoking man from the blinds. He lets go of the stretched blinds and smiles, deciding which major artery to strike first to ensure his death, but also to provide the longest amount of entertainment. _Jugular…armpits…heart…knees, wrists, ankles…so many to choose from…Zabuza-sama would choose the jugular, though._

"What?" Gato squawks from his desk, "Well what are you doing just standing there?! You're not just on the lookout; you're a fighter! I paid Zabuza good money, so go do your job," Gato shoos him away. The teen disappears and Gato smiles at the door leading to another room to his left. He fingers a key in his pocket as he walks over. With a sick smile, he opens the door and a sound similar to doves or pigeons cooing washes over him. It's music to his ears. He grins even wider as the light from his desk lamplight seeps into the first few feet of the room and illuminates bars on either side. In faint light he can just make out the outlines of the lovely doves with silver white hair and mysterious shining black eyes behind the bars. They coo and shudder with fear, whispering amongst themselves and tears fall from the younger ones.

"Do not worry, ladies," Gato says as he plucks a ripe dove from the flock and enjoys her screams as he drags her away, "I won't hurt her," he cackles as he locks the door behind his flocks and enjoys himself.

Elsewhere on the island, Haku follows a woman stunning beyond words. The woman turns to Haku and tersely whispers, "Where did you say they docked? How many? From?"  
"On the southern port. I believe the rower must've allowed them passage, even though Gato-san promised his wife's death if he broke the rules again. Three shinobi, from Konoha. I do not believe they are much of a threat, however," Haku says. Then he frowns, "Nee-san, are you going after them?"

"Of course," she rolls her eyes, as dark brown as his own. "You've got to stay with Zabuza-sama. I can deal with three Konoha flies. Go, Haku."

Haku nods and disappears in a flicker. The woman slips on black gloves and perches on a tree, eyeing the red-eyed woman and two boys behind her. She licks her lips and sends a barrage of ice towards them. The woman dodges and glares up at her, "Who are you?"

The woman hops down, "Did Konoha bathe in their own victory so much so that they had forgotten all of their enemies? Don't tell me you've forgotten, _Yūhi Kurenai_ -san," she grins.

Kurenai stiffens at her name. She studies the woman for a moment before gasping, "You're…you're Akayuki! The hyoton user from Kiri that took out Kumo's western company and half of Konoha's southern company!"

"Correct," Akayuki says, "You left out a crucial detail, but it's just as well. Now that you know I'm still alive, you can't live," she says as ice mirrors form all around them.

Kurenai curses, "Kiba, Shino, get out!"

The two boys quickly run to a gap between the mirrors, but ice spears ten feet long stab their legs and go through their bones and pin them to the ground. Blood flows out slower than normal; the ice slows their blood loss. They cry out in pain and Kiba grasps the ice and tugs at it to try to break it.

"Unfortunately, my ice is fortified by my chakra. It isn't normal ice," Akayuki lilts, "Don't worry, boys. You'll die soon enough."

Kurenai pulls out an exploding tag and hurls the kunai attached to it. It explodes in a hopeful explosion, but it isn't enough. No, it doesn't do a thing. Kurenai's stomach drops, "What?"  
Akayuki cackles in the mirrors and hurls shards of ice at the woman. Kurenai dodges easily until there is no more ground to dodge to. Kurenai weaves signs and breathes out flames. But, to no avail. It isn't enough to melt the ice. Lately, Kurenai sees her reflection in the mirror and curses. _She's going to use these to mirror herself…but how? Certainly there's only one Akayuki and several copies…_

Before Kurenai can weave signs to counter, senbon from all sides stab her body and blood dribbles down her wounds. Kurenai pulls them out and casts them to the ground.

"Go on, Kurenai-chan. Try it again," Akayuki sings, "I'm sure it'll work."

Kurenai grits her teeth and weaves signs for a genjutsu. She latches onto Akayuki's chakra and laces the woman's mind with an illusion. In the short time she has, she rushes to her students' sides and tries to pull up the spears, but to no avail. Kurenai takes out a kunai and attempts to break it off, but her students remain pinned.

"Akayuki-san."

Kurenai looks up and sees none other than Kosari. Relief surges through the Jounin, "Kosari-chan! Help me get this ice off of Kiba and Shino!"  
"Akayuki-san, I will not kill you if you tell me where Hyuuga Hinata is," Kosari says.

Akayuki laughs, "And who're you? Some no-name Jounin? Are you the pathetic backup with a little puppy?"

Kosari studies the mirrors for a moment before weaving signs. She closes her eyes, "Yūhi-san, do it."

Kurenai needs no more prompting. She molds chakra and prepares to melt Akayuki's mind, but the mirrors suddenly melt into water. The hyoton user comes out from the water, dripping with it. Kosari calmly walks towards the woman whose head pounds and chakra system isn't bringing enough chakra to her heart and brain, "Akayuki-san, tell me where Hyuuga Hinata is. Please do not lie to me; you reek of her scent."

Akayuki finds herself pinned to a tree, feeling numb. She gasps, "R-raiton user…"

"You will die in five seconds after I increase the voltage," Kosari says, "Please tell me where Hyuuga Hinata is."

"I don't know," Akayuki growls.

"Four," Kosari says.

"I hate people who bluff," Akayuki's body shakes slightly. "Especially damn weak Konoha flies."

"Three," Kosari narrows her eyes. "Would you like for me to kill the other hyoton user?"

"What other user?" Akayuki hisses as fear glimmers in her eyes.

"Yuki Haku, the youngest member of the most brutal and violent organization of MIA and KIA shinobi from the Third War," Kosari says, "Two."

"Y-you know…" Akayuki's eyes go wide, "Who are you?! If you answer that I'll tell you."

"You're in no position to make deals, Akayuki-san," Kosari says. "One."

 _Silver hair…those cold, empty black eyes…formal speech…in her twenties…Konoha shinobi…_ Akayuki glares, "You're Hatake Mikata, aren't you? Damn ghost!"

"Zero," Kosari says. She looks into the wide, deep brown eyes of the hyoton user and leans close to her ear, " _Die, Yuki Shiro."_

Lightning bursts from the woman's body and Akayuki screams silently. She shakes with electricity until Kosari lets up. Akayuki doesn't stir. Kosari presses two fingers to check for a pulse. Her emotionless face doesn't change when she lifts her fingers from the woman's neck. She doesn't look back when she grabs the woman's limp body and flickers away with Pakkun following closely behind.

Kurenai pulls out a roll of bandages to merely stop her students' bleeding. As she hurriedly wraps one boy's leg, she senses another coming her way. She stands and draws a kunai, ready to defend her students with her life. _Unlike Kosari. She's…she's so full of herself!_ Three figures materialize and reveal more Konoha hitai-ate. Kurenai sees Ko and is somewhat relieved, "Ko, you're a medic right? Can you heal bones?"

"What happened?" Ko asks as he approaches the three.

"We were attacked," Kurenai says, "And Kiba and Shino were stabbed."

Ko's eyes bulge when he sees their injuries, "I'll do what I can."

As Ko's hands glow with medical ninjutsu, sweat rolls down his face, "Did you see Kosari?"

Kurenai suppresses the urge to vomit when she saw the murder of Akayuki, "Yeah. She went off."

"Kosari-sensei killed some chick…" Kiba says, pale, "Some chick called Akayuki. I can't believe it…"  
Ko presses his lips into a thin white line as he focuses on healing them. _Kosari, wait for me._

* * *

A tall, muscular, and serious looking swordsman clad only in bandages and pants with a bulging chest bars her entry. He draws his sword and smirks, "Konoha brat, there's no way you're getting past me."

The Hatake drops a human figure to the ground at his feet. She stares defiantly in his eyes and forms a single seal, "Kai."

In an instant, the man's sword shatters. "Zabuza Momochi-san, I have brought you Akayuki. Please step aside."

Zabuza looks down at the silver-haired woman with shock, "You broke my sword…with just a single hand seal…who the fuck are you?" he narrows his eyes in anger.

"Please step aside," Kosari orders. Her blood pumps through her veins icily. _Objective: remove obstacle._ Zabuza's face glows in the dark hallway in Gato's base with her silent lightning. The man utters, "Silent lighting, huh? I only know one shinobi to have ever wielded that. Her name was Hatake Mikata, a girl from Konoha that died when Konoha shinobi dragged her back and charged her with treason and sentenced her to death by burning her alive. She had the same silver hair and cold, heartless black eyes as you. If she were alive, she'd be the same age as you. I have to confess, I admired her strength."  
"I burned her to death," Kosari says simply, "Please move, Momochi-san. Or you will end up just like Akayuki-san."

Zabuza's blood boils, "You were the one who killed her?"

"Yes," Kosari says shamelessly, "My orders were to do so. So, I did so."

Kosari grabs the man and hurls him across the hallway. She bursts through the closed door, only to interrupt Gato lying with a girl. The Hatake studies the two for a moment, barely intrigued by the fact the girl, about fourteen, that he is lying with has silver hair and black eyes.

"W-who're you?" Gato demands.

"Kid, I smell her behind that door," Pakkun mutters, shaking slightly as he senses her cold and murderous fury.

"Thank you, Pakkun," Kosari says absentmindedly and sends a lightning rod through the door. It splinters and the doves scream in horror. They shout in a coded way and Gato cannot comprehend their words.

Kosari walks down the room, searching each cage for her student. She notes pink hair beside dark hair and bore into green and white eyes, "Hyuuga Hinata-san. Can you stand."  
"K-K-Kosari-sensei…" Hinata is clad in nothing. "You need to get out of here!"

"That is counterintuitive," Kosari states plainly. She picks the lock with a senbon and opens the door. The silver-haired females shudder away from Kosari, cooing and muttering and screaming.

She ignores them and grabs both girls.

"Kosari-sensei, you have to get out of here," Hinata pleads.

"Why?" Kosari wonders if asking why will get her to stop blubbering.

"Because Gato is just a puppet. Sakura-san and I were brought here as bait," Hinata says as tears roll down her cheeks, "Bait to lure you out."

"By?" Kosari is getting tired of this.

"Uchiha Shisui," Hinata sobs. Then she freezes, staring at something in horror behind Kosari. Kosari turns to look and sees a pair of black eyes staring back at her. _Mission objective: retrieve Hyuuga Hinata and return to Konoha. Mission has been compromised: S-Rank criminal Uchiha Shisui has appeared and threatens to sabotage mission. Objective: return Hyuuga Hinata to allies for her safe return. Note: Hatake Kosari will be the decoy. Uchiha Shisui will not prevent mission success. Should he prevent mission success, Uchiha Shisui will be eliminated. Current objective: incapacitate Uchiha Shisui while Hyuuga Hinata flees to the safety of allies._ Shisui takes a step towards her and her lightning buzzes dangerously.

"It's been a long time."


	7. Chapter 7

_Three Days Ago_

* * *

A cloth tied too tightly around her eyes obscures Sakura's vision and her ears ring painfully. Her arms are tightly restrained behind her and the slack of the rope that someone pulls drags her. Her body aches with every step and a sudden gust of cold wind freezes her; she can't feel her chakra and can't summon it to warm her body. She is kicked down and her hearing clears up.

"You don't know? I thought I told you to look into that," Sakura doesn't know who any of the voices around her are, but the first one is definitely male.

"It doesn't matter," a level voice sounds. Another male.

"Thanks, though," a sigh, "I'm sure this is enough. Either she's still in ANBU Black Ops or she's been transferred to the regular Jounin Corps. Since Kakashi is out for recon, it's probably the latter."

"What will you do on the off chance that you're wrong?" the level voice asks.

Sakura can hear the hesitation in the first man's hum of thought, "I'll just have to use Kakashi. There's no other way I can lure her out; she's probably busy with her Genin or Shirusu and Yuuko."

"I have a bad feeling about all this," the second man admits.

"Why?"

"Because…" the second man sighs, "Even if she is in the regular Jounin Corps, she fully inundated herself with ANBU propaganda. She studied every rule in the Shinobi Code Handbook until she memorized all of them. This was a huge risk to begin with."

"Don't worry," the first man sounds confident, "Let's go; we've got to get to the rendezvous point."

"Yeah," the second man says tonelessly. One of them grabs Sakura and flickers, a nauseating ordeal for the Haruno girl. She'd never been dragged through space like that, much less had her organs squeezed until every ounce of life had been rid of. When her organs come back to feeling whatever normal is, she drops to her knees and vomits. Someone wipes her mouth and she is tugged along again. Sakura feels the men pull her left and right until she stops. _At least three days has passed since I first woke up and heard these two men talking…where in Kami's name am I?_

"This is Haruno Sakura," the toneless man says.

"Oh?" a mousey-sounding man sneers, "Good, good. A little underdeveloped but—"

"You will not hurt or touch her. She is merely our bait, since your spies failed," he responds with a dangerous edge in his voice. "If you lay a hand on her, I promise your death. That includes the other Konoha girl as well."

"What?" the man exclaims, "What am I supposed to do? What good will having girls around if I can't—"  
"That isn't our problem," the first man cuts in sharply, "Your job is to watch for a Konoha Jounin with silver hair and a white scar on her neck and face. We'll be waiting here."

"Give me my payment," the mousey man says.

Sakura supposes he is given his payment because the man mutters for them to go on. Sakura finds herself pulled along for a short walk before the blindfold and ropes are pulled off. Someone pushes her down and something slams behind her. She whirls around to look at her kidnappers, but they are already gone. She looks around and her first impression is darkness. As she peers more, she sees human figures and after counting a few, she realizes that there are perhaps fifty or sixty. All of them lack clothes. She cringes and takes a step back, "W-who are all of you?"

There is no response that Sakura can pick out from the murmuring. Within moments, though, she has her answer. The humans descend upon her and her clothes are ripped from her body. Sakura screams in horror and flushes as her body is exposed to the cold air and all of the eyes around her. She presses herself into the corner of the…cage. She pales. _Cage? What…what is this place?_  
"S-sakura?" a soft voice asks.

Sakura turns slowly, her blood pounding in her ears, "Who's there?"

"Hinata," the voice responds and a figure steps into her vision. Dark hair frames white eyes that look into her green ones. Sakura embraces the girl.

"Oh, Hinata," Sakura says, overwhelmingly glad. Then she remembers the conversation she'd heard earlier, "Hinata, why were you brought here?"

Hinata frowns, "Some people were saying things around me, but I couldn't understand a word of it. Why? Do you know?"

"I heard some guys taking about how we're bait to lure out someone from Konoha, I guess. Someone who knows some 'Kakashi' and 'Shirusu' people. I have no—"

"You said 'Kakashi' and 'Shirusu', right?" Hinata's eyes are wide. "Kami, if what you said is true, that we're merely bait to lure out…" Hinata grits her teeth, "Bait to lure out Kosari-sensei, then we're," Hinata shakes her head, not wanting to think about it.

Some time passes and a short man walks in and looks greedily at the two Konoha girls' bodies, "Unfortunately, I won't be able to fully acquaint myself with you. Uchiha Shisui, that famous murder, paid me a lot of money to keep you here until someone shows up. So, unless you want to die, you should keep quiet. If you aren't, you'll just starve," the man says. Sakura narrows her eyes. _So I can finally put a face to the voice of that mousey man._ "If this person just doesn't show up, oh well. I'll just keep pinkie here and take over the Haruno Company," the man shrugs before turning and grabbing a girl from the cage and slamming it closed and dragging the girl away.

"Uchiha…Shisui," Hinata says darkly, "It's definitely Kosari-sensei they're luring out. But why?"

"That's not important," Sakura says as she takes out a pin from her hair, revealing it to be wrapped with paper and wire, "Come on, I have a plan," her green eyes shimmer with excitement.

Hinata blinks, "What is it?"

Sakura leans in close and cups her hand to the Hyuuga's ear.

* * *

"It's been a long time," Shisui says as he takes a step forward.

Kosari stands still, her black eyes wide beyond belief. Sakura pushes Kosari and Hinata out of the way and tugs hard on the wire around her fingers. It makes a high-pitched sound as the wire runs on the surface of rusted metal bars before wrapping around Shisui and the tags explode on him. Sakura tugs Kosari out, not liking the blank, empty expression she was wearing.

Sakura's green eyes dart around and catch oversized coats and a blanket. She grabs it and tosses the coat to Hinata. It drapes over her entire body to her knees and Sakura wraps herself in the blanket. The two Genin look back and see that Kosari isn't following. She stands, staring at her hands in shock. Her cold black eyes burn with fury that Sakura gets the feeling isn't directed at her, "Go."

"We can't leave you," Sakura grunts before grabbing the woman's hand and pulling her out of the compound.

Kosari pushes both girls to the ground as the compound suddenly explodes with a huge wave of heat. Even underneath the silver-haired woman, the two girls felt as if their skin was melting off. Sakura looks at the woman with her eyes shut tight. _It must be unbearable…_

When the explosion dies down, Kosari pushes herself off of them and grabs them, pulling them with only one direction in mind: away. She sees the ocean and without a moment of hesitation, she jumps in and her back is soothed by the cold water but another wave of pain after her skin was burned makes her go rigid. The salt in the ocean is supposed to have medicinal properties, but for now, it just hurt even more than getting burned. Kosari grips a slimy rock, covered in algae, and it breaks under her white-knuckled grip.

"Kosari-sensei," Hinata says, looking at the face of pure pain before her, "I'm…"

"Kosari!" a familiar figure runs towards her with five others in tow. She opens an eye a crack and sees Hyuuga Ko. The man offers a hand to help her out and she takes it. He pulls her out and gasps when he sees her back. Her clothes had burned off and revealed terribly burnt skin. She shakes with cold and pain, diverting all her chakra to easing the burn. She inhales and exhales raggedly, her hearing and vision going in and out.

"Why don't you heal her?" Sasuke demands with Shino on his back and a splint on his leg.

"I don't have enough chakra," Ko admits bitterly. He takes out a roll of bandages and begins to wrap her back in it, eliciting a wheeze of pain. He continues until she roughly pushes him away.

"What's wrong?" he asks, terribly concerned. She shoots him a dark look before whispering, "Run."

"Run?" Ko parrots, "What? From what?"

Kosari pushes herself up to kneel on the ground. She takes out the scroll Hiruzen had given her and hands it to Kurenai. Before Kurenai can even closely examine the matrix, a kunai sails towards it and pins it to the ground. The paper suddenly burns and Kosari pushes them all back with a gust of wind produced by her own chakra. She cries out as the pain of her burn is fully felt due to her diverting her chakra to pushing them all back twenty feet.

"Nice try, but that is hardly going to work," a dark figure materializes and sheds a smoking cloak down to the ground. Kosari staggers to her feet and brandishes a kunai with trembling fingers and hate and pain burning in her eyes.

Sasuke drops Shino to the ground and rushes with a battle cry towards the man that had taken away his clan. Shisui looks at the boy weaving signs and blowing out fireballs aimed at the Uchiha man. Shisui dodges easily. Just as Sasuke is about to pass Kosari, she holds out an arm and prevents him from going forth.

"Kosari-sensei!" Sasuke grits out, "Let—"

"Silence," Kosari hisses, "Stay back."

Shisui eyes Kosari curiously, "I take it you were kicked out of ANBU, right?"

"None of your fucking business," Kosari spits, her tone drastically different from its usual polite and distant, "I have one question for a bastard like you."

"Oh?" Shisui arches a brow.

"Where…" Kosari gasps in pain, "Is Kakashi?"

Shisui's lips quirk up in a smirk, "I see now. He was a disgrace to my clan and I'm glad he got rid of it. You have it, don't you?"

"Disgrace?" Kosari repeats before her eyes turn to mere slits, "You should be damn grateful to him! You wouldn't be alive if he hadn't saved you in the war! If anything, he brought _honor_ to the clan you should be ashamed of calling your own!"

Shisui smiles, "Can't the same be said about you? You've done _far_ worse than I have. You aren't worthy to call yourself a Hatake, much less have their silver hair. You should be dead."

"Yeah?" Kosari challenges, "Then why aren't I a criminal like you?"

"Well, Hinata's mother and…me," Shisui places a hand on his hip, his eyes glimmering with amusement, "Truly, it's been too long," he tosses her a small parcel she doesn't catch. She doesn't pay it any mind.

Kosari's pain melts away into cold rage that colors her vision red. Lightning cackles around her, "Shisui…" she wheezes, "Where is my brother?! I won't ask again!"

"We'll talk again, Kosari. For now, keep _them_ alive. I'll have a word with them later," Shisui says as he flickers away.

* * *

"…"

Rin sends a dark glare to Ko, who fidgets with the hem of his shirt nervously. "Ko. Just what happened? I heard about her 'illness' from Asuma. And now this?" Rin gestures to the bandages covering her wound.

"She left me behind!" Ko exclaims, "She snapped and pushed away any common sense in exchange for ridiculous notions justified by ANBU and Shinobi Code regulations! She jumped into danger!"

Rin shakes her head, "That's not all," the woman picks up her clipboard and shoves it in Ko's face angrily. Ko blinks once before paling when he registers the words.

"Tuberculosis," Rin glares, "Just how did she contract that? Do you have any idea how hard it is to find the right medicine for that? And, to make sure it didn't interfere with any of the painkillers, stimulants, and anti-depression medication she _apparently_ was taking?" Rin sighs loudly, exasperated with her face in her hands, "Her blood tests revealed she drinks too! Ko, just what…?"

"Anti-depression…stimulants?" Ko mutters, searching on the paper for it. "She wasn't given any sort of prescription. Why would she be taking this? Where is she getting this, anyway?"

"How should I know?" Rin angrily snaps, "And what do you mean, she 'snapped'?"

Ko bites his lip before cupping a hand to her ear and lowering his voice, "Pakkun, Kakashi's ninken summon, had his eye in a small parcel. You can imagine what this must imply."

Rin gasps and covers her mouth with her hands as tears streak down her face, "Oh Kami…"

Ko nods grimly, "Yet, this doesn't explain the stimulants or anti-depression medications she was taking. How long—"  
A knock comes before someone opens the door. A tall, white haired man steps in and his glassy eyes drift from Jounin to Jounin and finally settles on the woman asleep on the hospital bed, "Damn," he mutters under his breath.

"J-Jiraiya-sama," Rin bows, "If you're here…where's Kakashi?"

Jiraiya looks away, "I'm sorry."

"What?!" Rin exclaims, horror chilling her blood, "Jiraiya-sama…he can't be…"

Jiraiya grimaces and puts a hand on his face, "She's asleep, right? She can't hear me, right?"

Rin shakes her head, trembling with sobs, "No…she's in a drug-induced coma."

Jiraiya crosses his arms gingerly, trying to avoid brushing his chest, "Good. She doesn't look too good already. I don't want to tell her she's…truly alone now," Jiraiya's mouth tastes metallic at the last part, "Don't tell her, okay? Don't tell anyone."

Ko holds Rin as she buries her head in his chest, sobbing, and looks at his old teammate on the bed with grief that she wouldn't feel until… _When_ can _we tell her? She'll eventually find out at some point, right? Even if she's released of Jounin sensei duty, she'll ask around before leaving by herself to find him, only to find a corpse. She can't be alone…can she?_

"Jiraiya-sama," Ko says softly, "She isn't alone."

"Hm?" Jiraiya looks up from his gloom.

"She's got me, and Rin, and all of the other Jounin. She might not be initially friendly or want to be, but she isn't alone," Ko says. Jiraiya grunts in indifferent agreement. Ko rubs Rin's back comfortingly. _Somehow, that might just be worse._

Two weeks pass until Rin takes Kosari out of her coma. Kosari blinks a few times and sees her students around her, slowly coming into focus. She looks up at Rin, "Nohara-san…I had a dream."

"What was it?" Rin squeezes her hand, wearing only black.

"That Kakashi was dead," Kosari says, her voice hoarse from not using it.

Rin squeezes her hand harder, "Of course not. It's just a dream after all."

Kosari squints at her, looking at her face carefully before her features calm, "Yeah," she shakes Rin's hand off and sits up.

 _My head…_

"Nohara-san, just what kind of medication did you give me?" Kosari arches a brow at the woman.

Rin forces a smile that Kosari sees straight through but decides not to comment, "Just some painkillers. I'd like for you to take it easy, though," Rin hands her a white bag, "These are some other painkillers. I organized them in their own pillboxes so you don't have to think or worry about it. Just make sure to take them daily until you run out. I put in four boxes, so come back after you run out. I'll personally refill your prescription so you don't have to wait in line or anything. Make sure to drink plenty of water, ne?"

Kosari pushes herself off the bed and winces at the tightness in her chest, "Do you have my clothes, or at least my Jounin vest?"

Rin frowns, "Hokage-sama took it; he wants to have a word with you, about something."

Kosari rolls her eyes, "Thank you, Nohara-san."

Rin nods and briskly walks out, leaving the Jounin with her Genin. She tries to stuff her hands in her pockets, but there are none. She settles by crossing her arms, not turning to look at them. They look too miserable.

"Kosari-sensei, I'm sorry," Hinata says quietly.

"For what?" Kosari genuinely asks.

"You didn't have to protect me," Hinata says, "If I hadn't—"

"Hyuuga-san, I owe your clan a lot, especially your mother. She was a kind woman," Kosari says as she starts to walk out. She turns and looks at Naruto, "None of you should be apologizing. What's done is done. If you live your life apologizing about things that have already happened, you're the same as dead. After all, you're dwelling on the past and not truly living. I can't teach students that aren't alive," Kosari says.

Naruto looks at his feet before producing the parcel that Shisui had thrown at her. He hands it to her. He stares at his feet, "Are you feeling better, Kosari-sensei?"

Kosari places a hand on his soft red locks, "Yeah," she gives him what constitutes in her mind as a smile, "Team 7, meet me on the training grounds tomorrow morning. You can go home."

Sasuke and Naruto shuffle out past Kosari while Hinata trails behind the woman. Kosari glances at her face, obvious signs that she wants to talk, "What is it?"

"How do you owe my mother?" Hinata asks.

The woman pauses before answering, "She helped build me back up to who I used to be after the war. A lot of people my age either didn't come back or came back with startlingly different personalities. The Second War was brutal and the Third War took a huge toll on my generation, with a very, very high casualty rate. I was just a teenager when it finally ended. I didn't have any family; the Third War took them all away one way or another. She even helped me get into ANBU. I'm not sure what strings she pulled, but I turned in my application and an hour later I had been accepted."

"Oh," Hinata says. She still looks as if she wants to talk more. Kosari decides to indulge her with one more question. _Besides, it'll be easier if I get on better terms with her._ "Kosari-sensei, you said in the Land of Waves that Hatake Kakashi was…your brother. That means you're the Copy Ninja's sister, right?"

"Yeah," Kosari says, "In fact, he was supposed to become your sensei. But, he was called up for an important mission and hasn't come back yet. I think you and your team would've been much better off with him rather than me, but we've got almost three months down and roughly eight months to go until the Chuunin Exams," Kosari says as she leans against the counter where Rin takes off her hospital wristband and formally discharges her with a bag of medications rattling in it.

Hinata looks at her teacher's form until she disappears down a side street. _Just what is her connection to Shisui?_

* * *

A shadow clone spars with Team 7, while the original Kosari sits off to the side, watching their form and often calls Naruto and Sasuke out on disadvantageous taijutsu form, "Don't hold your arms up so high, Uzumaki-san. You're leaving your chest too open."

Naruto quickly changes his form. His expression changes to an eerily calm one before he throws an obvious punch forward. Sasuke catches his hand and sends a knee aimed to uppercut Naruto's jaw, but Naruto suddenly twists and slams Sasuke into Hinata. Hinata stumbles back and raises her hands in the formal Academy style, but Naruto bends down low and spins with a leg outstretched, not only catching Hinata off guard, but also knocking her off her feet. She twists and backflips, narrowly avoiding a punch. Naruto quickly advances and dodges her punch. She lets out a growl of frustration and sends a kick towards him. He ducks under her leg and punches her gut, sending her flying towards Kosari. She lands hard once before bouncing up and then rolling to a stop.

Kosari looks at the boy curiously. She summons a shadow clone and the clone races towards the boy. Naruto blocks an incoming punch and his feet dig into the dirt before the initial force pushes him back. He twists and extends his leg, aimed to kick her stomach, in the small space between them. She grabs his leg and slams him twice as hard as he could have down to the ground before he crudely lands on an extended hand and backflips. He rebounds forward and jumps high into the air. The clone goes on the defensive and he sends a powerful kick, arcing from the left to the right. The clone catches his leg once more, but this time he swings an arm around as he cocks back a punch. She blocks with the other hand before he sends his other arm around to—

The clone flickers a few feet away. Naruto barely lands on his feet. The clone increases in speed and Naruto sees only a blur of green vest and silver hair before he feels his body thrown up, pulled through the air, and a knee sinks into his stomach.

"That was high-Chuunin level speed," Kosari says as the clone's puff of smoke dissipates. She squats to look at the boy, lying painfully on his back, and pokes his face, "You're a little faster than I thought."

Naruto brushes her offending finger away and sits up, holding his stomach.

"Well, now that that's over," Kosari eye-smiles at Sasuke, who limps towards them, "How does lunch sound?"

Naruto greedily slurps his noodles beside his teammates and sensei. Sasuke orders a simple side dish of pan friend dumplings while Hinata stirs her ramen with her chopsticks, occasionally nibbling. Kosari settles with simple tea and sips, eyeing Sasuke's plate.

Sasuke sighs at Naruto when he finishes his third bowl and turns back to his own plate, almost finished with the ten he'd ordered. He poises his chopsticks to grab the last one, but it simply vanishes.

"A little too oily," a voice mutters beside him.

Sasuke's head whips to the woman next to him and glowers, "That was _mine_."

Kosari shrugs, "I'm paying, right? It's my money."

"It was my food," Sasuke shoots back.

"I certainly hope you enjoyed chewing it because you don't have to digest it," Kosari quips calmly, taking a sip of her tea to wash down the oiliness of it.

"Is that a threat?" Sasuke growls.

"See it how you like," Kosari says, smirking a little. "A growing boy needs his vegetables, not the instant ramen you seem to like to limit your cooking expertise to. This had just a few slices of green onion and cabbage; I've saved you from unhealthy food."

Sasuke sputters, flustered and angry, "I can cook more than just instant ramen! I'm not Naruto!"

"Oh, really?" Kosari's eyes twinkle.

"Obviously!" Sasuke exclaims.

"Well, Uchiha-sama, Hyuuga-san, Uzumaki-san, and I be looking forward to it tomorrow night," Kosari grins. "Refill, please."

"Coming right up," the girl behind the counter says and pours piping hot tea into her porcelain cup. Kosari takes a long sip before sighing in content.

"What?" Sasuke demands, disbelieving.

"What if your team gets injured on a mission and you're the only able-bodied one to gather food?" Kosari queries, "You can't give us burnt twigs."

Naruto chokes on his ramen when he hears that. Hinata pats his back and the red-haired boy hoots in laughter and claps his hands as his stomach begins to hurt. Tears form in his eyes from laughing so hard and he shakes on the counter, banging his fists next to his bowl.

"Shut up!" Sasuke hisses at Naruto.

"No, seriously," Kosari says with an innocent look, "If it's the wrong twig, it might be poisonous. Cooking it might aerosolize the poison and it'd be a double-whammy: the fumes and 'food'."

Kosari take another sip as Sasuke tries to wrap his head around cooking, "There's no way Kagami-jiisan agreed to this."

"Why not? You're the heir to your clan; you should be at least able to cook," Kosari reasons, "What if you die, wifeless?"

Hinata snickers behind her hands.

"I'm going to be the strongest," Sasuke says, staring at his hands, "I don't need a wife or the skills to cook; I can just eat rations on missions and when I become a Jounin, I can buy takeout."

Kosari rolls her eyes. _Sounds just like Kakashi when he was a Genin…_ "I'll give you three the address of where Uchiha-san will be cooking us dinner after we finish up training today," Kosari puts down just enough money and drags Naruto away before he can order more ramen. _Kakashi…he can't be dead. Shisui was just bluffing and even if he weren't, he wouldn't have killed him; he's too valuable. Such are the perks of being Konoha's favorite and famous war hero._

* * *

Kosari holds three slips of paper between two fingers, "Normally, I'd be up front about this, but I like harmless surprises once in a while," she hands each of them a square of paper. She takes out her own paper and holds it out in front of them between her thumb and index finger, "If I channel chakra into it…"

The paper crinkles outwards from her fingertips.

"It crinkled," Hinata notes, "Meaning…?"

Kosari grins excitedly, "Sorry for the throwback to boring Academy days, but here's a small lesson you were never taught in-depth. I'm sure you remember being taught that there are five different kinds of jutsu, right? Suiton, katon, raiton, doton, and fūton?"

They nod. "But, the interesting thing is that shinobi are actually predisposed to certain jutsu. This predisposition is called a 'chakra affinity'. It basically tells you what kind of jutsu you are able to perform," Kosari looks at Sasuke, "To some extent. Now, I have a question for you three: why do the names of the Five Nations coincide with that of chakra affinities?" she places a hand on her hip, "This should be easy."

"Because certain affinities are more common in certain regions?" Sasuke replies, furrowing his brows.

"Yes," Kosari says. "As a result, there is a high ratio of katon users to doton users in Konoha compared to that of Kiri, who has a higher ratio of suiton users than Konoha, and so on. There are exceptions to this generalization, but this is just an outline.

"What I'd like for you to do is this: channel chakra into the paper. It'll tell you what affinity you have based upon the paper's reaction to your chakra. Some of you may already know your predisposition, but it's highly common to have more than one, but perhaps not now," Kosari looks at Sasuke for a moment.

Naruto grips his paper in his hand and focuses with his eyes closed. Hinata stares at her paper, waiting for it to move. Sasuke is the first to have an answer: it rips. The two whip their heads at the crisp sound and Naruto gawks. Hinata gasps when hers turns to dust. Next to her, Naruto's ignites.

 _Yondaime-sama, what do you think? Are you proud, or are you terrified that your seal may be weakening? What would you do?_ Kosari clears her throat, bringing the three back to attention, "My paper had crinkled, meaning I have a raiton affinity, or can perform raiton techniques. Uchiha-san's ripped, meaning he has a fūton affinity, Hyuuga-san's turned to dust; she has an affinity towards doton techniques. And lastly, Uzumaki-san," Kosari purses her lips, "Do it again."

She hands him another slip of paper and to his shock it crinkles. Kosari nods once, "I actually already knew the answers after being around you three for some time now."

"How did you know? We obviously never had tested with these papers before," Hinata says.

"Wait. I haven't finished yet," Kosari sighs, "Uzumaki-san, you can perform katon and raiton techniques. Raiton to begin with is rare in the Land of Fire, but I had a feeling you'd be able to. Normally, only Jounin can have two different chakra affinities due to extensive training, but you're an outlier," Kosari looks at him carefully. _Either that, or Naruto wasn't fiddling his thumbs as an orphan. Far from it, by the looks of it._ "I only had you test again because I didn't quite believe the paper; I could sense your affinity," Kosari places a hand on her hip.

"Back to Hyuuga-san's question, the reason is because when you're not concealing your chakra and especially when you're molding chakra for a technique, anyone around you can sense you. It's why you know that someone is behind you even if you don't see him or her. However, I was in ANBU for quite some time. As an ANBU, you must be able to sense someone is around and especially behind you even when their chakra is concealed, for security purposes. This is hard enough, especially when you send out waves of your own chakra to sense. Even harder is having to conceal your chakra and be able to sense someone who is also concealing their chakra, tell his or her gender, relative age, shinobi level, and of course, affinity. I excelled at sensing and honed my skills to a particularly fine point. Because you three don't conceal your chakra, it's quite easy to tell. In the beginning, I thought Uzumaki-san had a raiton affinity, only to see a katon affinity. I was a little shocked, so I had you test again."

"What other techniques can you perform?" Sasuke asks, trying to burn his curiosity away. He shouldn't care, but he somehow does. _Is this because she's friends with Kagami-jiisan?_ Then he frowns. _Friends? Just what connection could Kosari-sensei have with him?_

"Including raiton, I have three that I've mastered. Suiton and fūton," Kosari says. "I've brought technique scrolls for the three of you," she produces three from her back pocket and tosses them to the three Genin. They unfurl it almost ravenously. Naruto scowls at his and glances over at Hinata and Sasuke's scrolls. Then he looks up at the silver-haired Jounin, "Why'd you give us all D-Rank techniques? We're better than this!"  
Kosari shoves her hands in her pockets, "Given the fact that you're going to train night and day every day with this technique, it's best that you start off with a technique that isn't going to totally kill you from chakra exhaustion."

"What makes you say we're going to train with this Academy stuff?" Naruto challenges.

"Because you three have two weeks to perfect this," Kosari says, "It shouldn't take longer than that. Once you manage to get a D-Rank technique mastered, it will take you less time to master a C-Rank, B-Rank, and then A-Rank technique."

"Just two weeks?" Naruto gapes, "Kosari-sensei! Give us a little more slack!"

"Hey," Kosari snaps, "There's no reason you should be whining; you managed to master tree-walking and water-walking faster than your teammates. Chakra control, despite the sea of chakra you possess, is something you're good at. Use that to your advantage."

"But—"

A blur of black quickly hops and sprints over to the three. Kosari's eyes slide over to the figure and look over with mild curiosity. She looks at the man before her, "Team 7, this is Yamato. He's an old friend of mine, and the one that taught me a few useful suiton techniques."

"A few?" the man mutters, "Kosari-senpai, I—"

"Yamato, I'm sure you're familiar with these three," Kosari smiles pleasantly at the man. A bead of sweat runs down his face, "Yeah…Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata, and Uchiha Sasuke, right?"

"Right," Kosari says. She looks at Hinata, "Yamato has a doton affinity, one of the strongest in the village. I would've asked someone else to demonstrate your jutsu for you, but Yamato is the next best thing."

"Thanks, Kosari-senpai," Yamato says sarcastically. "What jutsu is it?"

Hinata looks at the scroll, "Doton: Inner Decapitation Technique."

Yamato grins, "That's one of my favorites," and then his smile fades to a look of concentration, "Watch closely. I summon chakra to my feet before plunging myself into the ground. Your chakra should act both as a shield, because there may be bombs or other dangerous objects hidden in the ground, and as a drill, because you're pushing the ground aside to allow for you to slip into it. Try to make the ground a little more viscous, like soil, mainly to make slipping into the ground easier."

"Doton: Inner Decapitation Technique," Yamato says before he disappears into the ground. Kosari frowns as she looks over the scroll and mumbles, "He didn't explain every—"

Her words were cut off as she is dragged into the ground until only her head remains. Yamato climbs out of the ground before he squats and smiles beside her glaring head, "What were you saying, Kosari-senpai? That I didn't show everything?"

Kosari doesn't respond. Instead, she mutters something under her breath before her chakra grinds up against itself and cuts the ground around her to pieces. Yamato offers her a hand to get out of the three-foot-wide hole she'd created, which she takes.

"Hinata, this is actually a torture technique," Yamato says solemnly, "After dragging your enemy down until only his head remains, you can torture him for information before simply slicing his head off. But," he grins at Kosari, "You can also use it for simple payback."

"I did nothing," Kosari says flatly as she dusts off her clothes.

Yet, her eyes glimmer with hidden laughter. Yamato feels a little more at ease. When he'd first met her, she was nothing more than a very devoted tool to Danzo. Her kunai and lightning were nothing more than extensions of herself. At some point, eons ago, she had been belittled by several other ANBU several years older than her. Yamato too had been belittled for being the youngest in the group and took the beatings and sneers, but on a mission to a town to 'gather intelligence', Kosari had taken down the entire town down, along with her superiors. She had justified their deaths by saying that they allowed their prejudice for their fellow ANBU to get in the way of being able to retrieve information, which was true, because they'd simply stayed back and drank at a bar and left Yamato and Kosari to do the work. Danzo never asked her why they never returned and Yamato was haunted by nightmares of Kosari electrocuting him to death for a month. Some time later, Yamato was on a mission with not only Kosari, but also the friend-killer: Hatake Kakashi. Yamato still wasn't entirely sure what their relation was but they certainly didn't seem to get along; Kakashi kept trying to put her in the back of the formation despite her role as captain. He speculated they were perhaps cousins from the silver hair, but he truly wasn't sure.

He wanted to know, though, now that he could see her face.

Yet, he didn't. Should this façade of mild nonchalance and glimmers of 'emotion' be nothing more than a mask in which another purpose lay, he didn't want to end up dead. It was obvious she knew a great deal of information on him, possibly including his past as Orochimaru's experiment. Normally, Danzo would put another agent in a vacant room in the ANBU barracks, but he hadn't put anyone in her room. It was as if Danzo was awaiting her arrival back into ANBU Black Ops. No, Yamato wanted no part in her reentry in ANBU. Danzo was surely concocting some sick plan and Yamato was very sure that Kosari would be more than willing to fall back into her ANBU mold and carry out his orders.

Stay away, he reminds himself. Stay far, far away.

"—mato?" fingers snap in front of his face. She looks at him quizzically.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Yamato swallows hard and nods.

She eyes him warily before sighing, "Thank you, Yamato. If I need you again to help Hyuuga-san…"

"Sure," Yamato forces a smile, "Of course. Anything."

"Thanks," Kosari says, giving him an ANBU smile, "Make sure to take care of yourself, Yamato. You don't look so good."

Yamato pales, "O-oh, really?" he laughs a little too loudly, "Sorry to worry you, Kosari-senpai. I'll see you around, right?"

"Sure," Kosari's eyes form two crescents as she smiles, "See you around. Thank you, again."

Yamato nods before flickering away to a tree and holds his chest where his heart beats wildly against his ribcage, ready to explode after too much fear and horror lit it up. His ears pound with his racing heartbeat and sweat pours down his forehead. He wipes it away before racing off at top speed, sensing her eyes trail him until he walks the merchant district, far from the training grounds. He steps into a café and tries to forget that his life was in the palm of his hands.

"I'll demonstrate the other two," Kosari says, looking at Naruto and Sasuke.

"Fūton: Gale Palm," Kosari says, "It's actually quite simple. You don't need hand signs. All you need to do is mold chakra to your hands and clap. It compresses the air between your hands and creates a thin and sharp gust of wind. Wind in general is suited perfectly for combat since it can cut through just about anything. Combined with fire, wind creates a deadly inferno."

She summons chakra to her hands before her hands meet and send a gale of wind towards a tree. The tree splits in half and its leaves fall to the ground. Sasuke's eyes widen a bit. _And to think this is just a D-Rank. If the Fireball technique is just a C-Rank, then what could an A-Rank look like?_

"Raiton: Lightning Discharge," Kosari looks at the Uzumaki boy. He looks at her with mild anticipation and the mere look of twin orbs examining her and analyzing her every breath and every move makes her skin crawl and something warm and unpleasant to writhe in her chest. She knew the pain of being an orphan after her mother died and her father abandoned the village, but Naruto simply wasn't normal…there was something lurking beneath the easy-going Namikaze eyes and excitable Uzumaki locks.

Kosari shows him the seals before clasping her hands together in a tiger seal and the ground around her buckles. She points an index and middle finger towards a tree and it cracks in half. "You'll want to start off simply with discharging from all your chakra points. Once you can get the ground to crack, you can try to condense it in your arm before sending a bolt towards something. Lighting techniques always require some sort of expulsion of lightning, whether it is spreading it about or condensing it, so this is a good start."

Kosari smiles at the three of them, "Good luck. You three have two weeks," then she digs in her pocket to produce three slips of paper, regular paper, "This is the address. Dress nicely and don't snack before dinner; save your appetites for Uchiha-san's magnificent cooking," she sends Sasuke a smile before vanishing into thin air.

* * *

"Damn."

The dry cleaners had helped a great deal, sure. The bloodstains of the daimyo from the Land of Iron had certainly gotten out, but odd smudges of iron remained on her kimono. She runs her thumb over the sleeves where the smudge was darkest and puts it down. Clad in only a green striped bra and matching panties, she looked at herself in the mirror on the back of her bathroom door. Scars littered her body, but the one that still hurt was the one that had used her belly button as the target. Most of the scars, even the poison ones from Shisui, had healed to a degree; merely thin lines of white on her skin. While she wasn't as pale as Kakashi, her scars sometimes camouflaged with her skin. Yet, the one smack-dab in the center of her stomach was pink. The blade hadn't been anything special: it was just a sword. It wasn't some triangle shaped one that created a wound that couldn't be closed up or some two-pronged kunai. It was just a sword.

At the time, she knew Fugaku wasn't necessarily in his right mind. But, she did hold a lot of respect for the man, as many did. He held his ground as the village's thoughts of the Uchiha began to sour and was mostly quiet and reserved, especially around his son. As the ANBU assigned to the Uchiha compound, she found him to be someone that could've become Hokage, if Minato wasn't wearing the hat. But, as the ANBU assigned with the vague order of 'aid' and 'protect', she had no idea of the danger she was in. Oh, sure, Shisui had tried to warn her when he was off-duty from his other ANBU missions and found her perched in a tree without a trace of her chakra around, looking at Fugaku converse with Danzo. Of course, with a lot of pride and annoyance from someone who wasn't her superior, she brushed him off.

Time passed and her stomach began to hurt, as if she'd caught some sort of illness. The pain only got worse and she hugged her abdomen as her eyes glazed over. She saw Fugaku's wrist flick and she appeared before him with her fist on the ground in a kneeling position. Her entire body went rigid from trying to hold in the pain.

"Stand," was what he'd said. He was perfectly calm. Shisui was out on a mission and couldn't flicker in to intervene. Itachi was out training still and Mikoto was innocently stitching up Itachi's ripped shirt in another room.

She did so and staggered back before falling to her knees, staring in disbelief, at Fugaku and then at his hand and then at the sword that had gone straight through her. She looked like a pincushion that Mikoto had made, but lacking about fifty pins and needles. Blood dribbled down the corners of her mouth and she looked at Fugaku through the holes in her mask in horror, "F-fugaku-sama…"

" _Uchiha_ -sama to you, you damn Hatake. I wish your father were here, though. He'd always wanted a perfect family of five sons, but you were the one that ruined everything and his reputation plummeted. Four sons and one weak _female_. He frequently thought of killing you and making it look like an accident, or poisoning you. It never worked, though. I don't think he tried hard enough, but today, I'll finally be freeing my friend and clan of this disgrace! If my next child is a girl, I'll bury it alive! I've been trying to poison you and I see that it's finally working. Your head burns and your stomach feels like it's on fire up and your body is filled with pain, right?" Fugaku grins, "You'll have Orochimaru to thank for that. He'll come soon to get you; your organs must be quite interesting specimens to resist poison for so long."

Hound stared up at the man with shock, "M-my father…he didn't…"

Fugaku cackles, "Oh, oh, oh Kami I wish I could bring him here for him to see the pure shock and denial on your face! Priceless! Damn ANBU up on your high horse drops down to a weak and stupid woman who can't understand her fate! Priceless!"

Hound gasps in pain and shock before getting to her feet and running out and away. She hops over rooftops before jumping down to the gates. She staggers as blood trails behind her and her vision begins to blur. She reaches out to try to grasp the gate because it looked so close despite the real distance of thirty feet, and collapses on her side. Strong arms pick her up and she gazes up blankly at angry red ones. "Who…?"

"What happened?! Who did this?!" he demands. Hound squints to try to get a better look at him. She studies him for a long time before realizing it. Pride and shame surge through her and she turns away, not wanting to tell him.

"Please," he says, suddenly very gently, "I don't want you to die without telling me who killed you."

"Like I'll die," she says before coughing wetly as blood comes back up. She coughs and blood seeps into his shirt.

"Then I'll just have to get the truth out of you. You'll be the laughingstock of the ANBU corps," he says, playing at her game. She relaxes a little and closes her eyes, just to make sure he didn't cheat, "You were right. I should've had my guard—" she coughs again before her eyes roll into the back of her head.

When she came to, Minato, Kushina, Kakashi and Shisui were looming over her with concern. She sends a glare at Shisui, "Are you happy now? You were right; I was wrong. Now get out, all of you. I only want to talk to Kakashi."

Kosari shakes the memory away from her mind and puts on a black turtleneck and dons her kimono. A clone ties the wide cloth that covers her abdomen behind her back and ties her hair simply with a white ribbon. She doesn't apply makeup.

"Fugaku, you should be glad," Kosari says as she places a hand on her stomach, "Not only did Minato not go after you even when I came into his office to tell him about the Seijou, but your sword still hurts. You've won, even in death."

She locks her door and turns to walk to the stairs.

As she nears the house, she sees a figure standing in front of the house. Upon further inspection, she sees that it is Nohara Rin. The woman turns and smiles at the silver-haired woman before she gasps at her formal wear, "Kosari-chan, you really went all out! Today is a holiday, but I guess I just never thought you were all that festive…" Rin laughs a little.

Kosari nods, "I light incense every year. It's just that today is much more than what the villagers are celebrating for," her eyes glimmer knowingly.

Rin frowns, "What do you—" then her face lights up, "That's right!"

Kosari glances down at the burning sticks of incense, "Did you light these?"

"No," Rin says, "Someone else did. When I got here, someone had already lit incense and presented offerings. Maybe a family friend…"

Kosari narrows her eyes, "I suppose," then she sighs, "In any case, a student of mine is cooking dinner. Would you like to join us? I've already sent a clone to get cake and candles. You're the only one of Team 7 in the village right now, especially with how Kakashi wants to take his time getting back, and I didn't want to ask Ko to come."

"Sure," Rin says, trying to shock from her face. _Kami, she doesn't know about Kakashi yet…_ "Where?"

"Here," Kosari says, "I've taken down most of the traps and disabled the seals and cleaned up a bit."

"Kosari-sensei!" a voice hollers from afar. Kosari smiles and walks up the steps to unlock the door. She steps in and sees her clone had already laid out several ingredients for Sasuke to work with. She turns and sees her students and Rin enter. Sasuke glares at Kosari, answering the question she was about to voice, "He couldn't come."

"Ah," Kosari says, "I've bought a few ingredients for you, Uchiha-san. We'll be counting on you," she says as she takes a seat at the table and folds her hands neatly in her lap.

* * *

Sasuke slams down plates of rice and stew on the table, sending murderous glares to everyone, especially the silver-haired woman. He takes his own plate and begins to eat angrily, crushing even the bones to smithereens. Naruto smiles at him as he finishes his plate, "Seconds please, Sasuke-chan."

Sasuke grabs his plate from him, exuding pure hate, and a messy plate of rice and stew (along with a large scoop of the eggplant that he'd nearly vomited on when cutting) and throws it at the boy. Naruto catches it carefully and begins to vacuum the stew.

"Naruto-kun, it's not good for you to eat so quic—" Rin says with a nervous smile.

As if on cue, the boy begins to choke. It isn't obvious at first. He looks up when she says what she says before his eyes widen and he doesn't move. The boy's face drains of color and he begins to panic. Kosari glances over at him and grabs his collar. With her chopsticks poised in her other hand, she deftly plucks out a large piece of eggplant. She places it on his plate and wipes off her chopsticks.

"I agree with Uzumaki-san, though," Kosari looks at her Uchiha student, "It's quite good. I'd stuff my face like him, but only if I were a child," she looks at Naruto with amusement, "But, your skills could rival that of Ichiraku Ram—"  
"No one can," Naruto says darkly, "Not even Sasuke-chan's cooking."  
"Don't call me that," Sasuke's chopsticks sail through the air, aimed for Naruto's neck. Naruto dodges and the chopsticks head for the wall. Kosari reaches to grab them and places them next to her plate, "Don't do that. This isn't my house. This house used to belong to someone very, very important."

"Who?" Hinata asks.

Kosari smirks at Rin before answering Hinata's question, "The Yondaime Hokage and his wife."

The three Genin go silent. Then Sasuke realizes something very, very disturbing, "Why are we here? This house should be a memorial…not some stage."

"Not anymore," Kosari says, "This house was entrusted to five people, of which the number has dwindled. Today marks the day in which the ownership passes on to another. But, for another three minutes, this house is still under the jurisdiction of those five, which includes myself and Nohara-san here."  
"How come?" Naruto asks.

"Well," Kosari says, "Nohara-san and my brother, Kakashi, were both students of the Yondaime Hokage. I was close to the Hokage because I was his ANBU, among other reasons."  
"Who are the other three?" Naruto asks, getting more and more interested in the life of his hero.

"His wife's disciples," Kosari says as she turns and takes a box from the fridge. She places it on the table as she summons a clone to clear the table and clean the plates. She places candles on it as Naruto is obliviously walking about and exploring the home of his hero. "Uchiha-san, could you light these candles for me?"

The boy complies and a flame from his finger goes from each wick until they all burn brightly. She glances back up at the clock and smiles. "Hyuuga-san, turn out the lights. Uzumaki-san, come here."

The two comply and they all gather. Kosari sits Naruto down in front of the cake and stands opposite him with a camera in her hands, poised to take a photo. She puts it on a timer and sets it down on a ledge.

"Happy thirteenth birthday, Uzumaki Naruto," Kosari says, "Smile and blow out your candles."

The candles' flames are extinguished as the camera flashes.

Cake is served and Naruto grins as he eats the cake, vacuuming it without hesitation. Rin sighs at his display and resigns to her slice of cake. The cake is quickly polished off and Kosari is left with a lump in her throat, "Uzumaki-san, there's something you should know."

"What?" Naruto asks, his cheeks round with cake.

Kosari stares at her untouched plate. _Too sweet._ "Today, thirteen years ago, is the day you were born. It's also the day that the Yondaime Hokage and his wife, along with countless other shinobi, gave up their lives when the Kyuubi attacked," Hound looks at the boy seriously, "And, today is the day you inherit this house."

Naruto chews once more before stilling. His eyes widen and he stands and takes a step back, "No way…"

"On October 10, Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina said their last words, with nothing but love for you," Hound says. She takes a few steps before taking a photo album from the bookcase. She pulls out a photo and hands it to him. He takes it with shaking hands and tears roll down his face as he sees his hero standing beside a woman with a swollen stomach. The couple exudes happiness and joy.

 _Tou-san…Kaa-san…I'll make you proud._


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I'd like to apologize for confusion in the previous chapter regarding Hinata's affinity. I was editing and adjusting and deciding and it was late and I have AP Exams to worry about…excuses (heh). Just to clarify, Hinata has an affinity for doton, not suiton. Thank you to LilyVampire for pointing this mistake out, of which I've fixed.**

 **Read on!**

* * *

A fluke, Sakura reminds herself. She glares up at the ceiling and quickly slips into her clothes and swings down the polished oak railing with one goal in mind: get as far away from her father's abode as quickly as possible. He is a despicable man, she reminds herself. A drunken and cheating idiot, the reason she drowned herself in books, but also the reason she was able to afford private tutors. He was Konoha's most important civilian, after all.

She would've glared at him as she left or simply paid him no mind, but instead she frowns when she sees the man sitting at his desk, poured over some papers. "Tou-san, what is that?"

She _never_ saw him focused on anything but the hookers that ran their hands over his unshaven face or his half-full sake bottles. Did he actually care about something now?

"Kiri isn't safe to trade with anymore," he sighs, "You're a shinobi…maybe you should know about this. They don't teach economics anymore, so you should try to soak up information on other countries' economies and culture so if you travel abroad you don't die."

"Kirigakure?" Sakura looks over his shoulder at his paperwork.

"Yeah," he rubs his eyes tiredly, "Kiri used to have Genin tests, for Academy students, with just one order: the last one standing will graduate. They'd fazed it out after the war ended, but someone just as terrifying has resurfaced. A child, much younger than you, has surfaced in Kiri that annihilated several port towns, supposedly under the guise that they held illegal opium traders and human trafficking and the sort of crimes."

"Seriously?" Sakura says incredulously.

"Yeah. She's only six right now. She's a Genin and will be taking the Chuunin Exams soon, for sure. I can't risk my merchants to be attacked and the cargo lost, much less the merchants to die. Dangerous business," he stretches, "I've been up all night trying to figure out something to do about this. Trade with Kiri brings in quite a bit of money, after all. Their seafood is the best."

"Is there a picture of this…girl?" Sakura can't seem to say the last word with confidence. Just what six-year-old murdered whole towns? Thirteen-year-old was one she'd almost not believed if such a fellow hadn't annihilated Sasuke's clan, and thirteen is— _was_ —her limit. The notion that a person less than half her age had killed at all was dizzying and nauseating. And, the more horrifying thing: she'd be taking the Chuunin Exams with such a _person._ No, monster. No one that young could be a killer and still be considered human, much less a person or child or even a _girl_. There's just no way.

"Yeah," he shuffles through the papers and produces it. He stands, "I'm going to take a nap now. Put that back when you're done with it, okay?" he yawns and collapses on a nearby couch, snoring almost immediately.

Sakura scrutinizes the photo of the young girl, with unruly dark grey locks and black eyes. She expects to see a ruthless killer with cold eyes, but the girl looks like any innocent and naïve six-year old. Looks can be very, very deceiving, Sakura thinks glumly. It was scary how innocent the girl looked. Her hair was even in little pigtails.

* * *

"Enter," he organizes a few papers on his desk and straightens out a few more. He looks up as a thin-framed Jounin steps in and looks at him with no emotion.

"I have one question. It is a yes or no question," Hound states calmly.

"Yes?" Hiruzen doesn't look up at her, feigning annoyance.

"Have you truly called back my brother? I don't give damn about Jiraiya," Kosari spits. "Please tell me, Hokage-sama."  
"I don't have to tell you anything. Shikaku said it himself: you're to have no part in any of this spy business. You're just bait. It's better if you don't know the strategy; if you get captured and put under a genjutsu that makes you spit out the truth, isn't it better if you just don't say anything, truly not knowing a thing? Information is important and while I do trust you, you need to have more faith in your fellow shinobi. Kakashi will take as long as he needs to gather as much information as he can. You are to remain the bait for the spies. That is the most useful role you can play in. You aren't a Nara who can catch people with shadows and your aren't a Yamanaka who can extract memories."

"And," Hiruzen continues, "You already have his memento. Shouldn't you trust him, the last—"

"I understand," Kosari cuts in sharply and storms out.

She arrives on the training grounds, seething, and blows off most of her steam training with her students and the jutsu they'd mastered. Hinata was quick to try to ambush her and once Kosari dodged, Naruto was prepared to electrocute her. She produces her own lighting of the same voltage and the jutsu cancel one another out. Sasuke's flames blind her for a moment, not seeing the wire he set, and Naruto sends electricity running down the metal. Kosari unleashes a torrent of water and a clone seamlessly takes her place as she launches herself from elsewhere, casting a genjutsu net.

Six months left.

As her body twists and turns to evade punches and deliver kicks towards the children whose ears do not ring with the drums of war booming as flames replace the sky, her mind wanders off.

Kakashi was on her mind, running over to her as a three-year-old with a stuffed bear under his arm and cute bunny outfit enveloping him. It was a fuzzy, light blue outfit with a white stomach and light pink ears. Kakashi was eagerly telling her that he'd heard about something called 'dango' and wanted to try it. Even back then, Kakashi had had a large vocabulary and error-free grammar. She stole some pocket money from Sakumo and slipped out of the house with Kakashi. Upon tasting the treat, Kakashi at first seemed to like it. But disgust quickly surged through him quicker than lightning and he spat it out, the white mush landing on Kosari's face. She wiped it off of her face and hurled it at the toddler with a face burning with anger. Kakashi's eyes widened— _back when he had both of them_ , Kosari thinks sadly—but a man, around Sakumo's age, caught it with hand lined with a gum wrapper he must've in his pocket. He tossed it in a trashcan a hundred feet away with startling accuracy. Kosari had stared at the man in wonder and admiration before bursting into a carefree smile threw her dango stick into a trashcan about fifty feet away. It, too, landed into the bin with uncanny accuracy. The man simply frowned at her, as if deep in thought, or just uncaringness.

This was the first time she'd met Uchiha Kagami.

But Kakashi was entertained. Very much so. He giggled and threw his bear up in the air, as if mimicking the two, and overflowed with joy. He threw his arms around the bear, tight enough to choke it, and cackled as if throwing objects, of which one was sharp and dangerous, was the funniest thing. His enthusiasm and aura of childish innocence was so heartwarming that it made even the bunny around him dull in comparison.

Flames in front of her and wire glinting in the sun with lightning crackling and Hinata's hands nearly dragging her down under made her focus a little more on team training and less on memory lane. Time skips by and the setting sun illuminates a sea of clones, in which she's sure Sasuke and Hinata are mixed in. The clones hurl kunai at her while flames come from elsewhere. The Jounin jumps into the air and releases a gust of wind that fans Sasuke's flames and extinguishes Naruto's jutsu. Sasuke stands, looking pissed, and nods at Naruto. The two charge and the Jounin engages them, taking on both boys on in a taijutsu bout where punches and kicks fly and whirl in clean arcs, only for Kosari to sink her own attacks into their soft flesh and avoid having her hair pulled out. She sidesteps to get momentum to hurl them away into the trees, but her feet don't want to seem to cooperate. She looks down when the boys snicker in victory and her body is pulled into the ground. A cloud of dirt, a byproduct in novice attempts at the doton jutsu, rises and Naruto laughs, "We totally got you…"

Then horror rises to his face, and embarrassment colors his face red.

"Hey!" he begins to panic as he looks around for anyone to help dig him out. Sasuke sniggers, "Idiot. Substitution jutsu."

"Sorry," Hinata says as she resurfaces, "I didn't mean to…" but she can't help but smile.

Sasuke pulls him out before he is tackled by a blur. The boy is wrung out before being thrown into a tree. He barely catches it and splinters embed his hands. The implications of it are obvious: he can't form seals or use his hands. Sasuke turns on a heel and sprints into a deeper and denser part of the forest. Kosari deftly snakes her way past trunks, roots, and branches covered in moss and thick foliage that only grow wider and bigger and more monstrous. In a split second, Sasuke is gone. Kosari stops for a moment before gathering her chakra to sense out the boy. Sure, he had good chakra control, but he wasn't as good as the A-Rank and S-Rank criminals and thieves and rogue shinobi she'd tracked down in the past.

A few moments pass before she hurls a kunai with fūton chakra coating and coaxing it to hit her target. She hears a hiss of pain before the area around her grows to be a bright orange color with a wave of tangible heat. The smell of smoke and burning and the sound of maybe fifty exploding tags go off all at once. She'd been late in noticing, but it was too late. She turns to see a blur quickly hightail it out right before the flames surround her.

Sasuke rolls on the ground, trying to stop his clothes from smoking and burning. Naruto peers down at the black-haired boy, "Did it work?"  
Sasuke glances back at the forest, "I think so."

Naruto hauls him up and looks at Hinata, "Do you see her?"

Hinata's eyes peer into the forest where the explosion had happened. Then she gasps, "No."

 _Their chakra flow…_ She smiles at the two boys before sighing, "Damn it."

"What?" Naruto asks, "I can send out clones and…"

"It's not that," Hinata forms a simple seal with a single hand, "Genjutsu."

"Kai!" the three say and the smell of smoke overpower them and they look up to see Kosari sitting on the grass with a pool of water surrounding her. Her clothes and hair were soaked, but looks as if she hadn't even seen an explosion, much less been in the epicenter of one. The Genin glance over at the blackened trees, where no billowing smoke rises. Confusion is written on their faces until she clears her throat, "I'd recommend not to use explosion tags around a suiton user."

"Ohh," Naruto says as the realization dawns on him. Kosari can practically see the wheels and gears churning in his head as he realizes this. "You used some sort of barrier, then? With water?"

"Right," Kosari says, "Similar to katon techniques, I bring up chakra to my chest, but instead of converting it to fire, I convert it to water and force it out of my mouth in the same manner as with katon techniques. In my case, I created a ball of water around myself. It serves quite well for both defense from fire and offense for my lightning."

Then she looks at them with a quizzical look, "You three took too long in realizing the genjutsu. Hyuuga-san alone is valuable as the Hyuuga heiress and is a target, especially during the Exams. You don't know if you're going to be ambushed or not and if Hyuuga-san is taken, what will you two do?" it's a rhetorical question, but Naruto opens his mouth to answer, only to be cut off, "You'd die. Or be hypnotized into spilling out some information. Wars have been fought over information, even something as petty as eye color of a particular shinobi. But do be careful; misinformation is more dangerous than no information."

"Tomorrow we'll be taking up a mission," Kosari says, "Dismissed."

* * *

"What?!" Ino exclaims, her eyes going wide. "Sakura-chan, you're kidding, right?"

"Unfortunately," Asuma says with her two male teammates in tow, "She isn't. That girl is causing problems with Konoha's tie to Kiri in terms of economics, like trading. We like Kiri's ocean products, like the mother of pearl inside of an abalone shell, which Kiri has in abundance. Our merchants are uneasy to travel there after hearing about this."

"This's that troublesome Satsuko girl Tou-san was talking about," Shikamaru mutters, "I don't want to take the damn Exams if we're going to be up against a seasoned killer. It'll just be a bother and a waste of time, especially if I fight and end up dying. The worst part is that we only have just a name and a photo and age. No known abilities or skillset or anything. We're," Shikamaru says, exasperated, "Screwed."

"Stop whining," Asuma chides, "You'll get killed for sure with that attitude."

"Tch," Shikamaru remarks, "My team, as capable as we may seem, aren't equipped to be an opponent for this girl."

"Then why not team up?" Sakura's eyes glint in a startling way. Asuma taps off the end of his cigarette, letting the ashes fall to the ground. She looks like a businesswoman, ready to pounce on any business and financial opportunity. Like a shark sniffing out one drop of blood within an ocean, knowing that one drop means a million drops—sustenance. It's an opportunity and Asuma glances over at Shikamaru. _Will he take it?_ He'd be a fool not to.

Or would be very, very wise. He barely knew Sakura after all. But, she was a Konoha shinobi, more of a trustable ally than the Kiri girl.

"What's in it for me?" Shikamaru says simply. Asuma pushes down a smile as he watches the event unfold.

"For my team and your team. Teaming up would increase our chances of surviving in the Exams. We're going to be fighting against not just this Kiri girl, but also others from all different nations. We have different skillsets and forming one group, as one 'shinobi', we would be stronger and better off than others who have a limited skillset, since they only have three people. My teammates are both trackers and I'm the one who sets up traps for ambushing enemies. Your team, so I hear, is a team of stunning teamwork that can attack and defend. While your team is busy preparing an ambush, for example, my team can be your eyes and ears. We'd be able to cover our backs and nearly invulnerable," Sakura says. Her green eyes gleam like the ryo in her pocket. Asuma knew that her father wasn't necessarily a good role model, especially after Sakura's mother passed, but they possessed not only the same hair color and green eyes, but also the same greed for greater opportunities and progress. Sakura wouldn't screw this up; she truly had her heart and mind in this. She wanted this.

Shikamaru looked skeptical. _Ino can just take over the mind of a bird and fly around to look for enemies. I don't see why we'd need Sakura's team. Sakura's team would only attract more attention and my team, despite our ninjutsu, doesn't really_ do _offense. Laying low is what's best, since Chouji wouldn't want to hurt even a blade of grass and Ino is too hesitant. Even I don't want to have to hurl my kunai at someone. Not only that, but we're not all that strong or fast. We have low stamina and low chakra reserves. Effective, yes, but not for very long. We're nothing but ants in a bloody tournament filled with bloodthirsty hawks._

Shikamaru sighs, puts his hands in his pockets, and walks away before calling over his shoulder, "We'd need more."

Sakura's mind whirrs at that before turning on a heel and running in the opposite direction towards a familiar compound.

* * *

An old, wizened man led her to a room where Sasuke sat on a dark wood floor with white tape around his ankles, white shorts, and a blue shirt with the Uchiha symbol on the back. He sat with a dark grey stone between his outstretched and far-apart legs and a pile of kunai next to him. The grey stone sat in water that he periodically used a hand to cup and pour over the stone and kunai before him.

The boy's head whips up and his nose wrinkles, "What're you doing here?"

"Information," Sakura says, "About a rather worrying competitor in the Exams."

"Oh?" Sasuke intones, going back to his work of sharpening the kunai. He exudes pure uncaring. The girl was simply annoying to him in the Academy because of her skills. She'd stood in his way of being the Rookie of the Year and the best, the strongest—the strongest shinobi. By extension, she'd stood in his way to kill the demons that still walk the earth with bloody hands. _Shirusu…_

Behind her, Kagami looks at him sharply. Sasuke sighs and puts down his work to look up at her, "What?" he gives her an annoyed look. Satisfied, Kagami walks away.

Sakura walks over before plopping down with her legs folded underneath her and her hands clasped in her lap. Sasuke goes back to his work, "Spit it out."

Sakura quickly explains what she'd heard and shows him the photo before telling him of Shikamaru's not-quite refusal. Sasuke snorts and looks up at her with amusement and mockery in his eyes, "And you expect my team to join you six? Ridiculous. And, you're a fool to have come and told me all this, about your team and Shikamaru's team's abilities. My team specializes in traps, tracking, taijutsu, and ninjutsu. We don't need you."

Sakura smiles, "Yes, you do."  
"Hn," Sasuke grunts, completely unconvinced.

"Because," Sakura pushes, "Strength in numbers. Two heads are better than one, and nine are certainly much more so."

Sasuke slowly looks up at her, with pure seriousness. He carefully enunciates, "No," Sasuke's eyes narrow dangerously, "Leave."

"You'll regret this," Sakura warns coldly, "But, I will not retract my offer. You'll still have this opportunity," and walks out, slamming his front door behind her. Sasuke goes back to his work until dusk, sharpening all of the kunai he could find to a deadly sharp point.

"Like I'll need your damn offer," Sasuke mutters.

* * *

A parcel.

Her fingers trace over the small, narrow, skinny scroll with intricate gold edges and a deep green outside, thickly dyed. The paper opens, seemingly without the need of blood or even chakra. It's curious—she's curious—if she'd been an ignorant Genin whose eyes lit up at nearly everything, so excited by everything, until someone far away lit a fuse that would wrap around the hearts of everyone in the entire world and set off bombs filled with every emotion to explode. It was a brighter and darker explosion than most of the descendants of the First War thought—children from the Second War hadn't expected it, and Genin, like herself, of the Third War, found that field promotions were nothing but licenses to paint the entire sky and reflective ocean red with agony.

If it were a wedding gift, she would've been surprised. She isn't married, after all. It isn't, and wasn't, and will never be. She applies a smear of bubbling chakra, bubbling with hidden fear with outward fangs of anger, and the matrix agrees like a bowing ANBU and carries out its duty faster than Shisui could teleport.

 _You were right. I should've had my guard up._

"I should've…" Kosari's hands shake, "Had my guard up."

The matrix settles down, kneeling as it awaits another order, and is indifferent to the screech, a scream, a yelp, a cry, a shout, that escapes from the depths of her nightmares. Not only for that, should she had have a sentry awaiting enemies to skewer with a lance dipped in poisonous war paint that glows with the strength and cowardice of a lion, but for this as well. In hindsight, it was all too obvious. Wasn't it?

It's a long, flat, product of a lot of work, sweat, and heat. And time. Lots of time. Someone had carefully created this masterpiece, only for one crazed, now dead, man to run it through a supposed pockmark on a family's reputation. Smelting, forming, hammering, heating, waiting, watching, hammering, thrusting into water, polishing, sharpening, and fashioning a hilt. Later on, someone who'd put on a façade of caring—nothing less than another bullet point in a shinobi's job description: acting—had put a silver band around the top of the hilt and a gold one on the bottom and two small little diamonds on the end of the hilt. Kosari thrusts it away from her and scuttles away, feeling her stomach rip open and as her heart echoes like a gong as it jumps as quickly as a rabbit does when a hungry fox is around, she sees someone clamber out, grab her neck, and laugh and laugh as blood pours from his mouth like a waterfall.

 _"Nee-chan!"_

 _She turns and sees little Kakashi hugging his bear tightly with a childish smile. A few moments later, she sees Sakumo put down his bottle, grab the bear, and Fugaku lights the stuffed animal on fire. Kakashi stared in shock, not knowing what to think or do, and flinches hard enough to fall to the ground when Kosari screams in anger, defying her father, and grabs the blackened bear, burning her hands in the process, and tamps out the hungry flames. Her hands blister and burn and throb more painfully than anything she'd felt, but she felt even more pain when Kakashi just walked away to his room and buried himself in his pile of stuffed animals._

 _24 hours later, the house was warm with a hearth glowing without embers or coal. It was a very nice fireplace._

"Kakashi…" Kosari clutches a hand to her chest as poisonous flowers of a rotten tree spread their pollen into the air. The rain threaten to pour down but Kosari is too tired of feeling like letting those saline drips roll down her cheeks.

Kakashi's late, so what?

"Shisui…" Kosari's voice darkens, "Why did you give me this? Why did you give me the sword that witnessed my shame and left a forever scar? Why does it have the two apples of your eyes and the wedding bands of you and your wife? Your wife is dead, Shisui. She's long gone, but you kept her ring until you jammed it on this sword along with yours, as if shedding your eternal vows. Is that it? You are retracting your vows?"

She looks at the gleaming sword with contempt, "Right? Be sure to tell your wife in the afterlife. I'll avenge her and her broken heart, for she was my friend, and you will repent. How dare you use this sword, a symbol of an Uchiha's anger and prejudice, and give it to me, studded with your unfaithfulness. _Disgusting_."

* * *

She wraps black tape, dyed in ink and mixed with her own blood, as a promise to the dead wife of Shisui, around the hilt.

* * *

There's also a family photo in the scroll, and nothing more. Kosari studies it with a detached heart, having set it to rest when she sheathed the sword in a scabbard. It's Shisui holding a toddler with one arm and his other arm slung around his wife's waist. Kosari quickly rips out the wife, a dear friend from long ago, and tacks it to the wall with a senbon. Shisui and his son are electrocuted in the sink, before the lightning turns to fire and the paper quickly burns to ash.

A hypocrite, she resigns herself as. She wants Sasuke and Hinata to just let go…but seeing the photo of the woman she'd been unable to save—perhaps burned alive or something torturous—set her heart ablaze. Emotions that she'd managed to more or less rid herself of, like hate and anger and rage, flooded back.

Under the moonlight, Kosari scrubs the tombstones free of encroaching moss and ever-present dirt. She slips into the Yamanaka compound and steals all of their flowers and sets them beside the names.

Shirusu's mother's name isn't present on any of the tombstones. Kosari hadn't really noticed until now. In a haze, Kosari stumbles around the cemetery for a stone and uses a kunai to engrave the woman's name, using her maiden name. Shisui had done enough damage, from breathing two new lives that became the two beings that his wife dearly loved, into his clan before killing them, and breaking his vows. The former was more than enough to have her roll in her grave. She didn't need to be dyed in her husband's color, his name, any longer. Kosari sets it beside Shirusu's stone and cuts her hand, allowing blood to fall.

It is a vow, the highest that can never be broken. It requires nothing, not seals or ink or chakra. Those three aren't permanent.

The blood fills out the engraving and Kosari wraps her hand tightly in bandages and stares at the—

A wisp, to the north. _Male, katon user..._ Kosari whirls around, "Who's there?"

Her grief-stricken eyes search the area and see nothing. She sends out a wave of chakra, but there is truly no one. Kosari walks away with her hands in her pockets and takes a few steps on the alley before waiting out the rest of the night by the Hokage tower, knowing that sleep was far away from her.

* * *

"…C-Rank…bring materials…"

Kosari can't seem to apply herself. Her eyes waver from Hiruzen's warbling voice to the nervous looking Chuunin, flinching at something in her general vicinity. She glances at her Genin out of the corner of her eyes and sees that they are doing nothing but listening to the fire shadow quietly, silently, and motionlessly. What was his name? Umaro? Uhano?

"Is something the matter?" Kosari queries the Chuunin. The man flinches hard and wrings his hand as he haltingly explains, "I-it's just…you look so…"

"Yes?" Kosari asks genuinely, furrowing her brows in surprise, "Do I look angry?"

"Yes!" the man exclaims, growing paler and paler, "You're saturating this room in killer intent. S-stop…please."

"Pardon," Kosari bows slightly before discreetly slipping a 'cough drop' in her mouth. _I had no idea…no wonder other ANBU say it's better to just die than quit…it's only been six months._ She looks at the three worriedly. _Am I going to snap and kill them? It's possible…_

But, she had her 'cough drops'. There was a reason she took painkillers. They numbed her. To avoid being so numb as to not sense an enemy on a mission, though, she only took half the pill or a quarter if she really needed it during a high-stakes mission.

Drugs were quite prevalent in ANBU, especially Black Ops where the expectations were higher, and ROOT even more so. Humans naturally had emotions and killing someone wouldn't erase them completely, of which Danzo was well aware. There was a reason that the ROOT members looked so pale and malnourished aside from being shut in all the time. Danzo drugged all of his operatives to a degree to make sure emotions didn't sabotage a mission. Drugs worked very, very well in ROOT because not only did the children get addicted from a young age and would be for a long, long time, but also because the children would adjust quicker and be more dependent upon it than adults or teens from regular ANBU and Black Ops and would have higher rates of the desired effects.

"-sensei?"

A hand tugs her sleeve, bringing her out of her musings and into the real world once more. She sees Hinata looking at her strangely, "Kosari-sensei, come on; we've got to go."

"Y-yeah," Kosari says reflexively, not having listened to a word of Hiruzen's explanation. Once the three walk towards the gates, Kosari crosses her arms, "Shinobi must have excellent memory and recall of vital information, even if the information was shown to them for just an instant. They must remember every detail they can. Now, just what exactly can you recall from Hokage-sama's briefing on our mission?"

"It's a C-Rank mission, carrying materials to an ANBU checkpoint, where the ANBU will then carry to merchant centers," Hinata says, grinning at Naruto as he'd opened his mouth to respond.

"To the south or north?" Kosari asks.

"Southeast," Sasuke cuts off Naruto as well with a smirk.

At the gates, a simple merchant hands Kosari a box four times long as it is wide and twice as tall as it is wide. It's heavy. Kosari seals it in a scroll neatly and turns to go to the southeastern checkpoint on the border of the Land of Fire, but is stopped when the rather skinny merchant places a hand on her shoulder, "P-please deliver this, no matter what. My family is just scraping by and I was just getting enough money to send my daughter here to learn to read, but after the rumors in Kiri…I fear not only I will perish from starvation or the merciless hands of the Kiri shinobi, but my daughter and wife will as well. They live near the checkpoint, less than a mile away, so please…make sure you deliver this to the checkpoint," the man drops to his knees and bows deeply.

Kosari can't relate to the man and his struggles economically, but replies coolly, "Our mission is to deliver this to the ANBU checkpoint. So, we will carry out this order and deliver it."

"Thank you so much," the man says as tears run down his face. "Thank you…thank you…"

As the three Genin sail through the trees and over branches, Hinata realizes something, "Isn't the checkpoint on the seaside? It might border the same sea as Kiri, but it certainly isn't close. What's to fear about Kiri in this time of peace?"

"Nothing," Kosari says, "Well, Kiri has always been good at keeping information hidden from the rest of the world. It's unlikely we'll run into someone particularly strong in the Land of Fire, for the reason you stated. Kiri _is_ far. However, I won't rule out anything. This is a C-Rank, after all, and with the Exams coming around, I wouldn't be surprised to find a few Kiri shinobi training on the Land of Fire's soil to get used to fighting on different terrain. If we do run into any of them, fighting will be out of the question. Killing a Konoha shinobi, with the Exams so close, could potentially disqualify Kiri from being able to participate."

"So what's in the scroll?" Naruto asks eagerly, "Gold?"

"No," Kosari says bluntly, "Konoha has mere slivers of gold deposits. It's probably silk or jade."

The sky wanes and its blue color, one that rivaled that of a pair of startlingly blue eyes, loses its battle with the flames of the chariot fleeing the silver crab. The trees seem to loom and grow more gigantic and ominous, as if it were some kind of setting for a horror film. Smooth roots turn into gnarled fingers bent at odd angles, ready to fly up and drag any unsuspecting being down into the depths of the earth. Darkness quickly follows the flames, once a brilliant orange, and an imitation of such magnificent but fleeting flames is all he can see. The silver crab glows high in the sky and the Jounin leans back on a tree and stares up at the foliage, a black mold rustling above her. Quietly, the Genin converse, sometimes interjecting and interrupting a sentence or two. A fight doesn't quite break out, but she knows that the girl's hands were close enough to form seals and then drag both of her teammates under. Hinata had grown from being able to just pull kunai under the soil to pulling entire people, two if she tried and had full chakra reserves, under the earth. She figures there's some kind of tension slowly growing within the Hyuuga clan—Hiashi didn't glare at her even when the two crossed paths in the streets—and Hinata seems more at ease to be away from it. In Konoha, the girl's shoulders had been unusually tense and straight, but now they relaxed as she converses with her two male teammates.

Conversed.

"Sensei."

"Hm?" Kosari looks down from studying the stars in the sky.

"Just what kind of people will be in the Exams?"

Abysmal obsidian eyes flicker up and catch the firelight and a scary glint sends chills down Hinata's back, even though she wasn't the one who'd asked. It was Sasuke. She looks at his face, focused and poised like a young lion in the grasses, ready to sink his claws and drain the life from anyone who got in his way.

"With the Second and Third Wars seemingly right on each other's heels, people were quick to repopulate after the horror, destruction, and frequent massacres. I can say this: there will be a lot of Genin, and a good chunk of them will have kekkei genkai, or some kind of specialty if they don't come from a clan. By kekkei genkai, I mean a special ability only passed down within a clan. When I took the Exams, only about a fourth possessed special abilities. If I were to put a number on it, I'd say perhaps half of the examinees would have some sort of kekkei genkai in the upcoming Exams," Kosari stares into the orange flames, "But, this is just a guess."

"Massacres?" Naruto asks, "I know war is brutal and all, but massacres?"

"There was a shinobi who went up a thousand man army on the northwestern front, during the Third War. There was also another shinobi in the southeastern front who slaughtered around 1,500 people. A massacre, Uzumaki-san, is defined by mass killings in a short period of time; very useful for taking down a large amount of enemies when you have little time but the element of surprise," then Kosari tilts her head and her eyes glint like a tiger assured of its prey, "What makes you so interested in such a bloody affair?" _Shall I show you?_

 _Well…_

Kosari bites her tongue until it bleeds, "Don't answer that," she says curtly, looking away before standing and briskly walking away, "I'm going to take a walk."

 _Damn it damn it damn it!_ Her hands shake at her sides as a maniacal smile threatens to split her face in two. _I need to get this under control._

The Genin are left alone with traps carefully set—basic ones were scattered around as larger ones were set and camouflaged. The basic ones were ones that Kosari had taught them how to set. The larger ones, much more intricate, required a skilled hand, and were ones that Kosari simply allowed them to watch how to make, but not to set up. I'll teach you later, was all she'd said.

As Hinata chewed a strip of gum in her mouth, Naruto reaches over to where Kosari had been seated and picks up a kunai, blacker than the night above them. He examines it with a close eye. _It feels…different than the Konoha ones I have._ Curiously, he sends a wave of chakra through it and gasps when it reacts with his lightning evenly. He hastily brings out his own kunai and frowns at the result. The lightning is able to go through it, but not nearly as well as the black kunai he had. He chucks the black one, coated with his lightning chakra, at a tree and it wedges itself deeply into the wide tree.

"Wow…" Naruto mutters before standing up, in a trance with tunnel vision squarely only at the kunai, and pulls it out with a sharp tug.

"What're you doing?" Hinata asks, "Isn't that Kosari-sensei's? I don't think you should be messing around with that…the look in her eyes wasn't a good one."  
"She's harmless," Naruto rolls his eyes, "She wouldn't hurt me, or any of us without a reason.

A few moments pass before the bushes rustle loudly. After hearing none of the traps go off, not even the large and intricate ones that Kosari had sent, the Genin swallow hard before standing back to back with kunai in their hands. Something blurs and Sasuke is quick to engulf the entire surrounding forest in flames. The wire that Kosari had strung is closest to Naruto and he sends a flicker of electricity into it—yet another little trick that Kosari had mentioned offhandedly after a long day of training. For two weeks after that, he'd practiced with the wire until he not only could discharge lightning from just three fingers buzzing with condensed chakra, but also could raise the voltage to be quite painful on a wire. A good trapper. As the flames sputter out from Sasuke's mouth, he slams his hands together with more chakra than necessary and a burning inferno surrounds the three. In the searing heat, Hinata squints with one eye and sees several chakra signatures around them.

"Come on," Hinata hisses as she grabs their arms and plunges under the ground. With the last of her breath, having had to hold her breath under the ground so that the two of them could breathe without being hindered by another pair of lungs, she shoves them out of the ground far from the forest. Black spots dance in her vision as her lungs burn. Her sense of time warps. It feels as if it were only a blink of an eye as she used her chakra to carve a way through the soil, but judging from the distance between the Genin and the flames, it must've been a few minutes.

Even though her vision fades and ears rung and her lungs burn, she can barely even see the smoke rising up.

The girl passes out as Sasuke tries to sense Kosari's signature, but to no avail.

Naruto hauls Hinata on his back and looks at Sasuke as wind suddenly picks up. It isn't long until leaves and wind and debris whip across their faces and sting their eyes.

"There's a building over there!" Sasuke yells over the wind. The two sprint through the windy storm and burst into a small house. A warm and bright hearth is quickly extinguished by the gust of wind brought in by the three Genin bursting in. The light that had illuminated the interior is gone and the three are plunged into darkness. Naruto opens his mouth to say something to Sasuke, but something reminiscent of a glass window and an explosion tag going off right next to his ears no less than one thousand times reverberates in his eardrums and time simply stops.


	9. Chapter 9

He averted his eyes from the sight, choosing to focus on shallowly breathing. His wrists chafed against his restraints as he suppressed reprimanding himself for getting ambushed like that. He bites his lip; _what do they want?_

Truly, he hasn't the slightest clue.

He can't help but feel almost as if Kosari had planned this. She'd, after all, strangely left before being left to fend for themselves and nearly die. He'd hope a Jounin could sense flames being released and chakra disappearing from the area, but he was beginning to doubt her. She should've saved them. _Where did she go?_

No, better yet: _where is she now?  
_  
A figure sees him and his expression, buried underneath his tumultuous thoughts, and jerks the boy's chin up, "Awake, eh?" then he smiles a yellow-toothed smile with splotchy gums, "What nice blue eyes, boy. Like the sea."

Naruto jerks back his chin, annoyed. He can't say anything; a gag is in his way.

The man simply smiles, "It'll all end soon."

 _Who cares?_

* * *

She cups her hands once more, as the gash on her leg grows ever more painful, "Hinata!"

She waits to hear anything, from a meek mewl to a shrill scream, but the sound of her own sharp and shallow inhales, along with rustling from the various birds in the trees are all she hears.

"Sasuke!"

She readjusts the pin keeping her hair wound around itself and her eyes sweep from left to right to left.

"Naruto!"

Her hands shake with self-loathing and anger and frustration. She runs a hand through her hair and the pin nearly snaps in two under her grip. She bares her teeth in a grimace before a tree splinters at her right. Her black eyes slowly slide over to the tree, splintered and dead in all entireties. The rock behind it and three trees behind the rock, too, are shattered and splintered in several pieces. The tree's leaves slowly float to the ground and she just barely dodges a kunai flying through the leaves obscuring her vision.

"Who's there!?" her voice is rough and her stance quite ready to deforest the immediate area.

The wind suddenly changes direction and her nostrils are accosted by the smell of explosives.

 _Damn it!_

A bright white light engulfs her as the forest around her explodes.

* * *

A dashing young man stands before his Kage.

"Mizukage-sama," he begins, his smile straining his face, "I'm a bit fed up, you see, with having all my requests to meet with you be dismissed," he slips his hands into his pockets in a Kakashi-way and runs a hand through his colorless, shining hair, "Will you let my team compete in the Chuunin Exams?"

She laces her fingers together, "Isn't—"

The door bursts open, revealing a young shinobi looking decades wearier, "No," he grits out, "I don't care if I don't participate this year…" he pants, "Or next year or ten years from now. Just…" he angrily grips the handle to the door, "That murderer isn't competing!"

A few beats of silence ring out before Mei furrows her brows, "Chojūro-kun, what's the matter? Murderer?"

Rage glints in his eyes before he spits out his answer, "Three days ago, your top business analyst went to the Land of Fire where Kiri's ports are. He died suddenly in a huge explosion that took the lives of the port and the entire town surrounding it. I investigated it yesterday—"

"So that's why you just disappeared," the man frowns, "Chojūro, we were worried—"

"Silence!" Chojūro barks, gnashing his teeth, "After investigating it, I found no explosives that could've been just _misplaced_ to circle the entire down. And, from the way that damage was done, it wasn't a normal explosion. It was lightning. As if to say someone with a powerful raiton affinity walked over there and massacred a few thousand people! It certainly wasn't anyone from Konoha; Hatake Kakashi's scent wasn't present—"

"And you stole the village's ninken unit," the man says, surprised and then disappointed. "You know, that's—"

"Meaning," Chojūro feels his blood boiling underneath his skin, "Someone from _Kirigakure_ had to be sent. A Kage only can authorize a massacre on that scale! Tell me, Mizukage-sama: did you send her to kill those civilians and my father?!"

Mei keeps her composure, "Chojūro-kun, you are one of Kirigakure's most promising Genin. Yet, leaving without permission, on top of stealing the Police's ninken unit, and possibly S-Ranked samples and books on DNA analysis that are reserved only for Jounin, brands you with treason."

"Treason?" he repeats, stuck in his angry haze for a moment before, " _Treason?!_ " he's incredulous; he just found the truth he at least should've been told! He was letting his father rest in some sort of peace! And, here he was: his village betra—

"Yes," she says without a shred of sympathy for him, "You committed several _crimes,_ boy, punishable by a lifetime in prison…or _death_. You'll never see the light of day again."

His boiling blood hits the freezing point, as his teeth seem to chatter, "I-I had to do this! I had to get justice for my father! You certainly didn't seem keen on doing it!"

Mei flicks her wrist and ANBU operatives appear, "Take him away, to Hōzuki Prison."

The ANBU grab onto his arms, dragging him away.

"Hey!" Chojūro begins to scream, "I've got a younger brother! He needs me!"

"Wait, Mizukage-sama," the young man says, "He's just a child. He just…made a mistake."

Mei holds up a hand and the ANBU stop before throwing him to the ground in Mei's office, "What are you implying, Saisho?"

"I'm implying this: forgive him. In return," he glances at his student, "He'll compete in the Exams without questioning your authority or anyone else's. He'll get the Final Round and obtain the title of 'Chuunin'. Right, Chojūro?"

His eyes are wide with shock. He looks from Mei to Saisho as his heart races. "Is that it? If I compete…without question…you'll waive everything you say I've done wrong?"

" _You_ did—" Saisho corrects.

"Yes," Mei cuts Saisho off with a lidded eye, "I can't lose one of my best Genin to mere impulse."

 _I feel like this is the wrong decision…_

His heart beats painfully, "I'll do it," Chojūro grinds out, "Just…leave my brother and my mother alone, okay?"

"Good," Mei says, "Let this be a lesson to you, Chojūro-kun. Be careful to control your impulses and anger; I don't want you to end up a," she glances at Saisho, "bloodthirsty murderer."

Saisho narrows his eyes at her, "Mizukage-sama, I won't—"

"Go home, Chojūro-kun," Mei says, "Tomorrow, there's someone I'd like for you to meet."

Chojūro barely bows before darting out, clutching his heart. He knocks on his door a little too hard before it reveals itself to be unlocked.

"Kaa-san?"

The house is silent.

"I'm home…" he says uneasily.

Chojūro kicks off his shoes and in a panic, he runs to his brother's room.

"Ryosuke!"

He isn't there.

Chojūro quickly runs to all of the rooms in his house, his heart beating faster and faster, "Kaa-san! Ryosuke!"

In the end, Chojūro finds himself shaking before the door leading to his parent's adjacent bathroom. His hands shake and his pulse pounds in his ear, but in one swift motion he opens the door and sees nothing but red.

Red walls.

Red floor.

Red bathwater.

He drops to his knees as his ears ring, " _KAA-SAN!"_

Within the red bathwater is his mother, whose naked body is halfway sunken beneath the water. Several slashes decorate her body and her vibrant blue hair floats, mocking him with the false image of life. He grips her hand, terrified. Her hand is lukewarm; _she'd killed herself earlier today!_ Anger and self-loathing threatens to overwhelm him, but the cooling body before him envelops his entire conscious.

"N-n-n-nii-chan."

Chojūro freezes and slowly turns around to see his younger brother peeking out from the cabinet underneath the sink, "R-ryosuke…" he lets go of his mother's limp hand before clutching his brother as tears roll down his cheeks, "Don't worry, Ryosuke. I'll protect you. Nothing bad will ever happen to you again."

A few days pass and Mei hands a scroll to Saisho, "Go to Konoha, and give this to the Hokage. It's the list of our Genin participating in their Exams."

"Yes, ma'am," he says and flickers away.

* * *

C sighs, glad to finally be out of the dense forest. He'd passed the Konoha checkpoint just a few miles ago. He pulls a twig from his hair and grimaces as it brings a few strands of blonde hair with it. He throws it to the ground and it rolls before falling into a gently flowing stream. He starts walking again.

 _cough…_

C freezes in his track, "Who's there?"

He takes out a kunai and senses two chakra signatures very, _very_ , close by. C looks in its direction and to his horror; he sees two bodies floating in the stream. Symbols indigenous to only Konoha adorn the bodies and after a moment of hesitation, he pulls the two out. One body, a boy, is quick to cough and wheeze, getting all of the water from his lungs. He opens his eyes and sees the other body. Then he sees C and lunges with a kunai already in his hand.

"Hey!" C says, evading his kunai before grabbing it from him and tackling the boy, "Calm down. I was the one who pulled you from the river."

Before the boy can spit something vile, the girl comes to, spurting up water. She wipes her mouth and looks around. Alarm shows on her face, "Sa—"

"I pulled both of you from the river," C says quickly, "Get it?" he pushes the boy away.

"Hinata, look for Kosari-sensei," the boy says, sending C a very, very dark look. The girl obeys and veins rise up from around her eyes.

 _Byakugan._

She peers into the forest.

 ** _Without the seal_** _._

Greed for his country races through him for a moment. C takes a small step forward, and further ignites the annoyance and discomfort from the boy, whose very breath seems to be made of flames. "You stay back, _trespasser_."

C doesn't say anything back; he's old enough to be done with petty fighting like this. The Hyūga heiress sighs, "She's in the forest, coming towards us."

The boy darts into the forest and C narrows his eyes at him, wondering how he'd managed to move through the oak trees, hundreds of years old and several times larger than he, with ease and without ripping out his hair.

Sasuke quickly finds Kosari and says, "Naruto's gone!"

Before the Uchiha boy continues, he finds something wrong with the picture before him. Kosari normally held herself with a rigid posture, occasionally allowing a slight slouch when she slipped her hands in her pockets before taking them out after someone spotted her, as if guilty. But before him, her dark clothes were covered with white tape and the side of her face sported a lattice of bandages. Her entire left arm was covered in white tape and one of her fingers was set in a splint made of three senbon dulled at the ends.

Sasuke's vision is filled with death and a skilled killer all of a sudden. He grips her thin wrist, muscles tense and unrelenting against his desperate attempts to pry her hand from her kunai. "S-sensei!"

Kosari blinks and gasps shallowly, not believing her eyes.

Beneath her, tense with fear, is her student. _Had I attacked him?_

The small cut on his neck is proof enough; _yes, I have_.

Oh Kami.

The boy gets away and takes two steps back. Kosari kneels, "Fuck."

To her shock, the boy snickers.

Anger and horror and embarrassment and shock bare their fangs within her black eyes at him. He stops on a dime.

"It's just…" Sasuke suppresses his amusement, except for a smirk, "Never thought a rule-abiding ANBU like you would allow a little frustration get to you and profanity even to slip out."

Then he lets his amused mindset fade, "What happened to you? Were you ambushed too?"

Kosari pauses for a moment. _So that's what he said._

"Yeah," Kosari says, "Where's Hinata?"

"This way," Sasuke says and leads the Jounin to the riverbank.

Relief spreads on the girl's face, "Sensei," and she is genuinely happy to see the woman.

Kosari would've returned the relieved sentiment to the girl, but a familiar face stops her, "I—"

"I found them," C says quickly, "I'm just a traveller."

"Where are your papers?" Kosari asks.

* * *

It had already been a long day.

He was tired. Done. _And yet I still have this to deal with?_

The day had started with a mission that wasn't too hard: just a simple cleansing of one of Kumo's troublesome areas, often plagued by petty criminals and prostitutes. But this time, there was a reason of about why Raikage-sama had branded the mission as 'B-Rank'. Darui had slid his eyes over to the three Genin of his before taking it. The mission had gone off without a hitch and he almost felt pride with the girl on his team managed to trick one of the criminals into killing himself with a sweet genjutsu. Things were going perfectly, but everything changed when the building itself exploded. Darui had no other explanation with just two of his Genin under his arms than the criminals trying to cover up more illegal drugs they'd imported. Yet, after very little observation, the reason was clear: the other Genin with straight black hair that stuck out in odd places with almost white tips had caused the building to explode in a flash of blue lightning. The sound of lightning had reached the Jounin's ears, sure, but he hadn't expected such a crisp sound. He hadn't heard that sound since he was a teenager: when his father was murdered by a famous proponent in winning the Second War for Konoha, and a lightning-user, the sound had rung through his nightmares. When the terrifyingly nostalgic sound had bounced out from his mind, he'd plucked his blood-soaked Genin from the basement of the building and nearly sucker punched him. The boy had had a strange expression, but that wasn't what made Darui's blood boil.

"Raikage-sama, excuse my lateness," Darui says, barely bowing as he shoves his Genin to the floor to bow.

"What happened."

It isn't a question.

It's a death sentence if he gets this wrong.

Darui takes a deep breath, "Today—"

The Raikage suddenly blurs and grabs the boy's face and peers into his eyes with shock, " _Sharingan!_ "

 _Just how?!_

* * *

The sound of crows crowing and swirling about is more than enough to awaken Shisui from his midday nap. The man strides over to Itachi's alcove and knocks softly.

"Enter."

The man enters quietly and looks at Itachi, "What happened?"

Itachi's frown deepens as he looks at the crow. After a pregnant pause the Uchiha teen replies, "It seems that Konoha isn't the only place to harbor Uchiha; Kumogakure seems to be sporting one."

"Oh?" Shisui says, but not out of amusement. He feels sick.

"Pein said we should investigate…" Itachi trails off, eyeing Shisui's pale complexion, "Is something the matter?"

"N-no," Shisui says, puffing out his chest a little, "Let's go investigate…and maybe see how much he knows."

A curt nod from the younger Uchiha, and the two are off to the secretive village clouded by…well… _clouds_.

* * *

"So here are the materials…" Kosari hands over the scroll to her former ANBU counterparts.

"Thanks," the ANBU seem to have an amused edge to their hollow voices.

Kosari nods before frowning, "Have any of you seen Uzumaki Naruto?"  
They look from one mask to another before deciding upon an answer, "No."

"I see," Kosari says before flickering away to where Sasuke and Hinata await her.

 _I'm glad C-san has already gone; the ANBU were more than enough to help escort him. Still don't know why I needed to be the one to get the ANBU to help C-san, though…_

"Let's go find Uzumaki-san," Kosari says, working on sensing the boy. In her weakened state, Chuunin-level sensing is all she can do. Kosari is well aware that straightforward sensing would easily be picked upon by any enemy shinobi hiding, but she's got to gamble. With problems weighing heavy on her mind, she can only justify her reckless actions with the fact that Naruto is important for the village's safety: without its jinchuuriki, Konoha would be invaded by other nations. She _can't_ let that happen.

 _We must find Naruto._

Kosari leads the way with a slight limp and by midday when the sun is at its hottest, the three Konoha shinobi see decrepit gates leading to an equally decrepit and rundown town. Kosari struggles not to vomit; the smell of opium and other narcotics makes her downright nauseous. She covers her mouth and nose with her sleeve before gesturing for the two to follow.

"What's that smell?" Sasuke mutters, using chakra to keep from vomiting. "It's sweet…"

"More like sickly sweet," Hinata says, starting to tear up, "Sensei, what is this?"

Kosari doesn't trust herself to answer, settling on a small shrug before taking a deep breath and stepping into an alley, where she allows two shadow clones to sweep the town. Within the blink of an eye, the two clones disappear.

"Lady," a rough voice calls from the other side of the alley with a hand twirling a half-empty bottle of alcohol, "You lost?"

"Sensei—"

Sasuke grabs the man by the collar and slams him against the wall, "Have you seen a boy my age with red hair and blue eyes?! Answer me!"

"Get off me, brat!" the man swings the bottle to Sasuke's head, aiming to shatter the glass on his head. Kosari grabs the man's wrist tightly, her black eyes flashing in the shadows, "Answer him."

The man hesitates, "N-no," he says. Then he narrows his eyes, "You're shinobi!"

Then he screams it out, "Shinobi! _Shinobi!"_

It takes less than a minute for the alley to be surrounded with thugs. From the top of the building that casts a dark shadow in the alley, a woman dressed in a regal purple kimono looks down upon the three shinobi with drying shirts, scrapes, and white bandages, "Well, we can't have this," her yellow eyes narrow, "Kill them."

* * *

"H-hey!"

Naruto easily kicks the man away as he bites his bindings at his hands away. He spits it out before glaring, "Don't follow me," he stands before the threshold, "Or I'll kill you."

The man staggers away, terrified of the boy, suddenly so strong. He hadn't expected the skinny boy with strange red hair and sea-blue eyes to break free of his binds so easily. The man, in his addled state, can't understand what strength, monstrous, overcame the boy. Was the boy a figment of his imagination, a mere product of his pipe, or was he something else…

"Shinobi!" comes a cry that rings around the town, "Shinobi!"

The man, in an instant, understands. The boy must be a shinobi. He isn't some farm boy he can use for ransom to take over the neighboring town's fields to grow more opium. He's a skilled killer, with far more power than the man can ever imagine. To him, the boy is reminiscent of the killers of the past: the White Fang and the Kīroi Senko. The boy is an instrument of Konoha, judging from the headband he presently ties around his head proudly, and bait sent to lure reinforcements to end the opium trade once and for all.

It was no secret in the world that the one thing that all five Kages had agreed to for the first time since the War ended was that the opium trade must be stopped. The agreement had happened, to his knowledge, shortly after the Land of Iron's daimyo had been assassinated by none other than a Konoha shinobi.

His entire body shakes with fear, but he blinks as he finds himself lunging at the boy and a stifled voice gurgling, "You can't take my opium!"

The man heaves on the ground, not sure of what to make of the pain in his stomach, the red on his fingertips, or the screech from the boy.

* * *

Kosari drags both of her Genin away from the area, doused with the cover of a few smoke bombs. She ducks into an empty bar and presses herself against the wall, shutting her eyes with her brows knitted and sweat rolling down her face as she swallows hard and breathes shallowly.

 _My cuts reopened…_

She looks down at her legs and sees blood slowly peeking out through the white.

"Sensei, you can't go any further," Hinata says firmly.

Kosari suppresses the urge to roll her eyes. _Like you have any authority to start ordering me around._

"We'll go ahead," Sasuke says just as firmly.

"Like hell," Kosari grits out, "Don't be reckless."

Hinata's eyes flash with anger, "Like you're one to talk! You were the one that pushed yourself back there! Sasuke-san and I are more than capable to deal with petty thugs!" then rage rips across her face, "Is that it?! You don't trust us?!"  
Kosari ignores the girl, focusing more on her clones, whose reserves are rapidly depleting, and on the trickling of thugs into the streets and into buildings to look for them.

 _Opium is illegal. International law was revised half a year ago to crack down on opium. Do they think we're here to raze the fields?_

A screech reaches the Jounin's ears. Her eyes widen _which way was that?_ She turns to her Genin, but to her dismay and shock, the two are gone. She curses under her breath before stepping into the street, "I'm right here! Come at me!"

The thugs immediately pick up on her call and come running with kunai, axes, swords, spears, and other weapons. With a battle cry, they charge at the woman, who draws kunai and chucks it. The men easily dodge, "Do you think mere kunai can beat us?!"

Kosari leaps onto a wall, sticking with her feet and kneels, wincing, "Yeah, I do," and the wire strung through the kunai ensnare the men. She leaps back down and unleashes a quick burst of taijutsu, aiming for non-vital organs and areas. Few men prove to be a challenge, especially with her fluid movements around their solid and slow punches and almost water-like absorption of their kicks before bouncing their force back and sending them flying into other fighters.

A few skilled men remained, creating a circle around the woman. Kosari feels the pain of her gashes even more so than before; mainly because her chakra is being spread too thin from her wounds to sensing. Even Kakashi had more chakra than she.

"Scary," a man grins sarcastically, "Don't worry, lady; we'll take you out of your misery soon enough!"

The man rushes at her with his sword. Kosari glares at him and dodges before twisting once more to evade the awaiting kunai. She plucks one out of the air and tries to plunge it into the man, but instead cuts his spear in half. He bristles with anger, "You bitch!"

 _Poof!_

 _Damn, my clones…!_ Kosari twirls her body, ignoring the painful _pop_ of her crude stitching and suturing of the gash on her shin, and sends an uppercut kick to the man's jaw. She hears a _snap_ , eliciting a scream from the man. His body, sent flying up, lands on a few men, who accidently impale him with their raised swords, kunai, and spears.

Kosari turns her head, keeping the man's blood from splattering on her face. She turns a deaf ear on his screams as she jumps onto a rooftop and races to where her clones had last been. She hops down to the ground and turns a corner.

Her eyes widen and the only word that can come to mind is _surreal._

Blood is splattered everywhere and her Genin lay in some of it, with their eyes closed and their chests heaving. Their hands shake, but Kosari knows that's just adrenaline.

 _I don't sense anyone else around. We're alone._

Thugs litter the ground, along with kunai, spears, saws, and a cornucopia of weapons she supposed they must've created themselves after having been isolated from other towns for so long. Kosari takes a few steps before dropping to her knees, racked with pain. She scoots herself to the side of a building and decides to redress her wounds.  
With quivering fingers, she peels back the now-pink bandages and casts it on the ground.

 _Make it your goal not to get wounded, Kosari. Your low blood pressure and quite slow clotting combined make any deep gash deadly for you._

"Sakumo…" Kosari mutters bitterly under her breath as her vision begins to blur and her hearing going in and out. She takes out wire and a senbon and tries desperately to close the wound up again.

"I…" Kosari's fingers slowly lose their grip on the senbon.

"Hate…" the roll of clean bandages tumbles out of her grasp.

"…you," she breathes as her eyes roll into the back of her head.

* * *

Naruto slowly opens his eyes and sees darkness, and a faint light. He turns his head slightly and sees the origin of the light: the moon. He turns his head the other way and sees three familiar faces, along with two masks. The boy sits up and frowns. _Where am I?_

"Quite some bloodbath, kid," one of the masks approaches him and squats before him.

Naruto looks quizzically at the man. He must've voiced his thoughts, or the man was a Yamanaka. _Yamanakas can read minds, right?_

Naruto looks into the porcelain mask and sees two amused eyes. The bird mask itself is familiar, and the man's voice even more so.

Naruto scuttles away, reaching for a kunai to draw, only to find his holster gone.

"Remember me?" the man laughs, "I'd hope so. Doesn't seem you've gotten any brighter; you didn't even feel the lack of weight on your hip," then he glances at the curled form of Kosari, "Then again, Kosari just lacks any kind of skill in teaching people. Don't blame you, but if you die she'll probably lose the ability to enter ANBU again," he crosses his arms thoughtfully, "But, I doubt she'll reenter; she doesn't have the strength she used to have," he playfully punches her shin, eliciting a sharp inhale from the formerly sleeping Jounin, "Being a Jounin sensei has taken a lot out of you, huh? From getting attacked, bruised, sickened, burned, and nearly killed, you've been dragged through the mud; that's for sure. I'm honestly surprised you haven't killed—"

"Hawk," the other mask grabs his collar and shoves him on the ground, "That's enough."

Hawk brushes Monkey's grasp away, "Yeah, yeah," he shoves his hands in his pockets and walks out of the abandoned place. "Call me if you need me."

Once Hawk's signature is far away enough, Kosari slowly sits up and grabs her shin gingerly.

"Did he loosen the stitches?" Monkey queries. He pushes her fingers away, "I'll redress it—"

"No," she barks. Her black eyes shine with fury as her hands quickly sign her dissent, 'Tell me: the town where you must've found us; tell me everything about it.'

Monkey tries to ignore the interested looks that the Genin are giving him, but can't seem to shake off the suspicious look that the Uchiha boy is giving him, "Kosari-san, it's a little stuffy in here. Let's take a walk."

Kosari blinks blankly at him. _Are you stupid?_

"Here," Monkey says calmly and picks her up with an arm under her knees and under her spine.

Under a large pine tree, one former ANBU and one current ANBU sit. Kosari turns to look at the masked ANBU, 'Go on.'

'I'm sure you noticed, but it's an opium town; it produces nothing but opium for the illegal drug trade. A little less than six months ago, all five Kages agreed to crack down on the opium trade. Town like this know full well that they'll be driven out to work as poor farmers and kill anyone that looks like they'll get in their way.'

Kosari's eyes are wide.

'Did I clear something up for you?'

'Yes. These wounds are from an ambush in the forest. Several explosions went off and I was caught severely off guard. I think these were modified explosives; normal explosion tags wouldn't cause this much damage, especially when I know I wasn't necessarily within point-blank range of any. And, I suppose their determination to keep a hold on opium, nothing more than a cash crop really, is why they tried to kill us—Naruto, Hinata, Sasuke, and I.'

'Perhaps—'

A scream pierces the air, making Monkey look up and Kosari freeze, her fingers stopping dead in their tracks to redress her wounds herself. The scream resounds once more, causing Monkey to grab Kosari and rush back to the small abandoned cottage he and Hawk had found after investigating the sudden spike and then drop in chakra in the surrounding area near the ANBU post.

Monkey slams the door open and finds Hinata in a sudden panic, " _Sensei!"_

"What's wrong?" Kosari pushes Monkey away, making him let her go and her to gingerly stride towards the girl and grip her wrists, keeping her fingernails from digging further into her palms.

"He—I—but I didn't—" Hinata began to sob, "So much blood!"

"Hey," Kosari gets the girl's attention with a mild hypnotic genjutsu, something C-Rank, which at her low chakra levels is all she can pull off. Even now, she felt lightheaded.

"Dead…" Hinata sobs, "I…"

Hawk crosses his arms from the corner of the room, and lowers his gaze to the two females, "Sounds just like when that lucky Uchiha guy killed for the first time, Kosari- _chan_."

"Lucky?" Monkey looks at Kosari, "Who?"

Kosari presses her lips into a thin line, glancing at the corners of her eye at Naruto and Sasuke, the former vomiting into a trashcan and the latter quiet with his black bangs covering his eyes. She lets go of the girl, who sobs into her hands helplessly, "…can't believe…"

Kosari shakily stands and grabs Hawk's collar as Hinata's hiccups pound in her ears painfully. Shorter than he, Kosari pushes herself up on her tiptoes and glares grimly, "Why do you always have to antagonize everyone?"

Hawk decides to turn the tables and grabs the small of her back and presses her against him. He chuckles as her eyes widen for a moment.

"Why do you have to be such a pain? Why can't you just," she grits her teeth, "Just do as you're told?"

"Ah," he holds where his forehead is in faux-agony, "You Hatake, with all your stupid rules and regulations and ramrod lifestyles. What fun is living your life like this? Come on, Kosari-chan—there's got to be something you just despise about being an ANBU, about being a Jounin sensei, and you've got to just vent somehow. I want to go home and further my 'hobbies', but I'm stuck here. Kosari-chan, don't you have any goals in life? You act like living within black and white lines is everything a shinobi's got to do to be perfect. Aren't you just itching to reach your goal? Don't you love anyone? Don't you want to get married? To have kids? To grow old with your lover? To die in peace?"

Kosari's obsidian eyes go wide, shocked.

"Hawk," Monkey says quietly.

"I do this, annoy and antagonize and patronize _you_ because I'm trying to teach you that even if you haven't settled on your goals, even if you haven't attained your goal yet, that you can still play around like you're a carefree Genin and find your goal on the way to the Shinigami. You have talent—and something the village prizes—and I hate seeing potential being thrown away so easily," he scowls behind his mask, "Those two Uchiha guys, for example. They were the best of the best, but they suddenly turned and killed their entire clan. They've thrown away their lives and chances at happiness," he sighs, "That Shisui guy, especially. He was my sparring partner in the Academy once. He had so much talent but wasted it on something as boring as becoming Second-in-Command in the Police Force. He didn't even take a wife or have any kids. Instead, all he does is just try to kill a fellow ANBU and murder a little kid and an infant. Do you have any idea how frustrating—"

Kosari sinks a punch into his stomach before dropping to her knees as her head spins in dizziness, "Hawk…" she can't catch her breath as memories of that night flood back, "Don't you dare say another word about Uchiha Shisui...or act like you understand one thing about me."

"Oh?" he intones, holding his stomach painfully. "Why not?"

Kosari gropes for an excuse, not wanting to tell the ignorant Hawk of the night Shisui killed his children instead of her, "Uchiha Sasuke is here. Do you want to remind a boy, who has barely come to terms with having just taken away a life, of his worst nightmare? Are you an _fucking_ idiot!?"

Hawk blinks at her sudden anger, "…"

"Thought so," Kosari quietly says before she passes out. _You hardly make any sense._

* * *

"Mission: success," Kosari intones. "We delivered the materials."

"You should go to the hospital, Kosari," Hiruzen looks over at her bandages, "And perhaps…" he smiles a little, "Have a professional dress your wounds? Medical procedure was never your strong point."

She scratches the back of her head to go through the motions of humility.

"Kosari, you may go. You three," Hiruzen looks at Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke, "You three stay. I'd like to have a word with you three."

Kosari looks at him carefully, "Hokage-sama, are you sure you don't want me to sta—"

"Yes. Go," he says curtly.

With Kosari gone, the three Genin stood before their Kage.

"I doubt Kosari told you, but that town you went to was supposed to be for Elite Jounin and ANBU only to investigate and destroy. That town was an opium town that grows opium from the poppy plant after taking over neighboring rice fields and converting it for their poppy. They are one of the last known places to grow opium, which in all nations is highly illegal. Opium itself is a highly profitable thing, and highly addictive. The money generated is often more than most farmers will see their entire lives. This is why growing opium is much more enticing than farming rice and the lure of that much money drives people to do anything they can to protect their livelihood and profits. They might even try to kill any outsider just to keep themselves hidden."

He laces his fingers together as the Genin seem to shrink away when he says the last bit and his eyes hop from one Genin to the next, "Tell me exactly what happened."

"The mission was completed," Sasuke mumbles, "That's all."

"No," Hiruzen says, "Something happened. Something beyond what Kosari said. Did you fight anyone in that town?"

The three are silent, looking at their feet like their lives depended upon it. A bead of sweat rolls down Naruto's neck as Hiruzen stares them down as if they were insects under a microscope.

"Yes," Hinata's voice is barely audible. Tears fall to the ground onto her shoes and she tightens her grip on the hem of her shirt. "And we won."

"…I see," Hiruzen says, "You three are dismissed, then."

The three are more than pleased to get out of the office before going their separate ways.

Hiruzen sighs loudly, gripping the gnarled armrest with his equally, if not more so, gnarled fingers. _Those Genin…they've seen poverty, they've seen unequal leadership, and they've seen the things people will do to gain money and keep it. And, now, they've killed. In a nutshell, they've seen the world and it's darkest and lowest parts. They know ninjutsu and have good taijutsu. Genjutsu may be a problem, but that is easily solved._

"Hokage-sama, got something for ya."

Hiruzen looks up as his student walks in with a small packet of papers, "What is it?"

Jiraiya's expression is grim as he pushes the papers towards Hiruzen on his desk, "Intelligence reports from Kumo."

Hiruzen reads it to himself. _A young Genin, 12, named Imagawa Haruki possesses the sharingan with one tomoe._

"H-how…?" Hiruzen is flummoxed; Itachi and Shisui had killed every single Uchiha except for Kagami and Sasuke.

Jiraiya flips a few pages and a list of birth records is before him. Hiruzen reads it anxiously and finds… "No record of any birth twelve years ago besides Uchiha Sasuke a year before that. Meaning—"

"Meaning the kid either had his records destroyed, or his parents left Konoha for Kumo and didn't come back," Jiraiya crosses his arms, "We should send out one or two ANBU to investigate this kid, and maybe bring back a sample to test."

Hiruzen takes a long drag from his pipe, "But before that…Kurenai, Gai, Asuma, and Kosari's Genin teams aren't prepared to deal with the sharingan. We've got two months to prepare."

Jiraiya frowns in thought, "Kagami-sama and I could help out, I think."

"Good," Hiruzen flicks his wrist and an ANBU with a Monkey mask materializes. "Monkey, I'd like for you to arrange for Team 7, 8, 9, and 10 to report to the Uchiha training grounds two days from now. For now, inform Kagami about this, and help him prepare if necessary."

"Yes, sir," Monkey says and flickers away to the Uchiha compound.

 _It's been a long time since I've walked down here…_ Monkey walks through and finds Kagami standing before the Naka Shrine. The ANBU kneels before a village elder, "Kagami-sama."

Kagami doesn't turn to look at him.

"Hokage-sama wishes for you and Jiraiya-sama to prepare the four Genin teams for encounters with the sharingan. I was sent to inform, and help you prepare."


	10. Chapter 10

He can hear his heart beating and feel his blood pressure soaring. More than just a few beads of sweat ran down his face as he stood with a change of clothes outside the showers for patients. He could hear the faint chatter of the female nurse keeping Kosari steady as she quickly soaped herself up and rinsed it all down the drain. It seemed Rin's faith in Kosari was dwindling; Kosari's silver hair, once reaching the middle of her back, barely brushes her shoulders. Rin didn't say, but Ko had a feeling that Rin didn't want Kosari to hang herself. Aside from keeping her steady, the nurse was making sure Kosari didn't tamper with the IV and the various liquid-form drugs Rin had re-prescribed her.

Rin didn't need a blood test to know that Kosari was skipping her medications and splurging on painkillers and more alcohol.

 _Kosari, what are you doing? Don't you know that you matter to your team, to the Hokage, to the village…and to me?_

"Ko—"

 _I can't just sit by and watch you hurt inside and die. If Shisui hurt you that badly…I'll kill him. No matter what Kushina-sensei might've said._

"the report—"

 _Kushina-sensei would agree, wouldn't she? She might've been friends with Mikoto-sama and often took us to eat with them at the yakiniku restaurant, but that's got to pale in comparison to trying to kill you._

"Ko-san!" the nurse huffs indignantly, "Are you spacing out?"

"S-sorry," Ko rubs the back of his neck, "What were you saying?"

"I said: here's the report. It's Kosari-san's blood test. I think you should look at it," the nurse says in a hushed voice before quickly click-clicking away with her heels.

Ko frowns and looks at the report. His eyes scan the page before he pales and the report drops from his hands as he bursts into the shower room, lined with curtained stalls.

On the floor is a toppled IV drip and an unconscious nurse before the roar of the water hitting the ground. A small window's frame lies on the floor, clearly pulled off its hinges.

"Kosari…!"

* * *

 _That signature…there's no mistaking it!_

She backflips over a cart in the middle of the street having toppled over and spilling heads of cabbage all over the path and catches the railing of a building with perfect timing before swinging herself to the rooftop and running across the building's beam.

It doesn't take long to reach the Uchiha compound.

The hospital uniform for patients wasn't baggy on her and certainly didn't take its time reflecting her body heat as she remembered as a Genin. Back then; the hospital garb was nothing more than an embarrassing gown that covered only her front with two long ties in the back, exposing her back to the sterile hospital air. Kosari was much more grateful now than ever before; whenever her chakra flow was distressed, as it had been when Itachi had reactivated her seal, the seal on her back rose to the surface prominently. Now, the hospital clothes had improved a great deal.

Yet, she's still cold.

Kosari pumps more chakra to her fingers up until her fingertips, but can't feel any warmer. The compound comes into view and she quickly slips in and makes her way to the training grounds where several signatures remain stationary. She approaches the group before seeing a flicker of white. She looks up and senses the signature moving away from her. She hops into the trees and shields her eyes from the sun to search for the signature.

 _Jiraiya-sama._

She extinguishes her chakra before moving swiftly where the man hides behind a tree, under the presumption that a lack of a signature must mean she gave up. Wishful thinking.

"Jiraiya-sama," she appears before him with a metallic taste in her mouth.

The man flinches, hard.

"May I ask you something?" she stands with her back straight and her black eyes reflecting his shocked expression back at him, like a deer caught in headlights. She studies his every move and sees a bead of sweat run down his cheek, his pupils turn into pinpricks, his blood pressure rise, his hands shake, his palms glisten with sweat, peristalsis move his nervous spit down his gullet, his chest expand and contract, and his feet contemplate running once more.

"What?" his voice is too high.

 _He's going to lie to me, isn't he?_

"Hatake Kakashi has been on a mission with you approximately for the past six months, one week, three days, and four hours," Kosari's fingertips feel numb from some sort of cold, "Where is he?"

Jiraiya doesn't respond right away. He grabs his chin with two fingers and pinches his jaw before closing his eyes.

He opens his eyes after a few seconds and looks her in the eyes, "Kosari, Kakashi was a good kid. I'm sorry. Do you—"

Kosari's entire body goes rigid.

No.

The air around her goes still and her eyes go wide as the leaves and grass and sky lose their color.

 _No._

She vanishes in an ANBU-speed flicker and arrives at her apartment before flying through the stairwell and bursting through Kakashi's apartment door.

 _No...!_

She drops to her knees when the apartment reveals itself to be devoid of any life. She stares at the ground, not believing it. _Impossible…Jiraiya…Kakashi…? He let Shisui, the man who murdered his own children…die? Jiraiya should've been able to hold off Itachi and Shisui with his senjutsu and let Kakashi escape._

 _Dead?_

 _Or, they both should've been able to defeat at least one of them and wound the other before escaping. There's no way that a Sannin was able to get away scot-free while Kakashi fell into the Shinigami's realm._

 _Died?_

A crash echoes brashly behind her. Her fingers remain frozen and stuck to the ground, keeping her from striking whoever dared come near. She feels warm fingers lightly grip her shoulders before a figure lands on the ground in front of her and places much warmer fingers atop her own frostbitten ones. A single finger reaches under her chin and forces her to raise her head. Glistening obsidian orbs gaze up.

"Hound-taichō," glowing red eyes shine into hers.

Hound's body stills. _Color…_

 _Yes?_

Gloved fingers wipe away her tears, "Do you still trust me?"

 _Why?_

"It sounds as if I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but I can help you. I have a forbidden power that can relieve the world of this murderer," he sucks in breath sharply, "Alone…I think you know that you'll die if you go after him now. In your current state, with something as devastating as this weighing on your mind, you'll die. I don't want that to happen. And, I don't want to go after you as your enemy."

"Why?" she demands.

"Why what?"

"Why help me?" she lunges at him and has a kunai at his throat, taken from his holster, " ** _Tell me!"_** her eyes burn with fear and hate.

"Because I'm the only one that can," he says, "Without family or allies, you've got no chance alone. Danzo-sama and Hokage-sama are unlikely to allow you to move with much freedom. You haven't known anyone long enough to trust them. We were initiates in ANBU since induction, long before the War broke out, and remained in the same divisions, switching off on missions," he gasps as the blade presses harder on his throat, "During the War…I was the only fighter still alive to help you fight off all those enemies and kept you from being flat out annihilated."

"Give me a real reason," she hisses, "Not some fake flattery. Your life is in my hands."

"Because…" he sighs, "Shisui killed my sister and took away my father's ability to speak. He took away everything that was important to me. I can't stand by and watch as he goes unpunished for destroying the last of _your_ family, too. Hatake Kakashi was a valuable asset to Konoha and Hokage-sama probably won't do anything more than increase patrols to look for them. Days, weeks, and months will pass and nothing will be done past that. What will be done if his patrols _do_ find them? Nothing—Hokage-sama won't want to sacrifice anyone else. Shisui will just go free. That's an insult not only to Kakashi, but you, my father, my sister, me, and the Uchiha clan. In that way, Hokage-sama is Shisui's ally, keeping him safe from punishment. You can't trust the Hokage or anyone under him. The only people with the skills to take him down, right now, are you and I."

Hound's grip lessens just a bit before he turns the tables, taking advantage of her loosening grip, and his glowing red eyes stare down at her obsidian ones. "Will you trust me?"

She disappears from underneath him, gripping her upper arms with her hands. Slouching. She shuts her eyes as more tears threaten, and do, fall.

"After that bloody War…" she states, "I won't ever trust you."

* * *

 _'Suicide would be the last thing for Hiruzen to worry about' was it?_

* * *

With a black zip-up jacket on to fend off the cold and warm gloves on, especially with the encroaching winter, along with thick, black, cotton pants on with deep pockets and kunai and shuriken holsters taped to her leg, she descends deeper into the Uchiha library.

It is restricted only to Uchiha members, but Kosari simply slipped in after finding the door open. She has her guard up; anyone could be lurking around and she certainly doesn't want to be caught for trespassing. Kagami would be lenient, maybe, but anyone else here because they want something—Itachi or Shisui. _I don't sense them, but those two are good at extinguishing their chakra until it's almost nothing._

It's that and the fact that the threat of spies within the village, especially Orochimaru's spies looking for kekkei genkai (of which the sharingan would probably take the title of the strongest), combined with her trespassing and pilfering somewhat classified documents may label her as a spy, and by extension, a traitor.

Under the impression that only scrolls line the walls since the Uchiha decided to adopt putting their achievements to paper a _long_ time ago, she carefully takes a few of the neatly stacked scrolls before sitting. It doesn't take long (well, she supposes, in the dark with just a flashlight, time could pass quite quickly) for the ground around her to become littered with scrolls.

With a sigh, she rolls most of them back up before replacing them exactly where they were. She looks down at the five in her hands, undecided. _Can these really help?_

 _Can they help me find a way to catch, and plunge into the depths of hell, the clan's most powerful Uchiha?_

No, death—killing, that is—is too kind. If being in the Assassinations Division of ANBU Black Ops has taught her anything it is this: a swift death is cruel, but torture until they beg to die is justice in its purest form. A swift death for murderers would be painless, unlike the horror and fear and agony their victims were in during their final moments, and would only hasten their journey to the souls they killed. Torture, keeping a murderer's soul tethered to the earth and far from his victims, allows for every moment of terror and pain to be felt and understood before he dies full of regret.

With her flashlight between her teeth, she looks around to see where the next rows of scrolls are, but finds something better: a table and a chair. She walks over before setting her scrolls down, pulling out her own scroll to take down whatever may be helpful. She pulls out the smooth wooden chair and sits.

Her entire body freezes.

 _I-I can't move…!_

In shock, she watches as black markings snake up her body and paralyze her. _Fūinjutsu? I've never seen such complex markings with intricate patterns as this. I can't break this._

Her heart thuds in her ears before she realizes something terrifying.

 _I can't breathe._

 _I can't breathe!_

"Can't move?" a voice asks calmly, "Can't breathe? Can't even blink?"

Not even the tiniest sound escapes her throat.

"Taichō, there's no way any of this could've been of any use to you, however," the voice says, unfurling the scrolls to reveal nothing but illegible scribble. "What you'd read earlier was nothing but bait for trespassers. This section is what I presume you're looking for: Uchiha history, but you'd need a sharingan to read this. There's a reason why only Uchiha are allowed. If anyone else snuck in and either sat where you sat or grabbed the thickest, heaviest scroll at the end of the shelf with the enticing label of 'Entire Uchiha History' in regular kanji and kana, they'd be paralyzed and die within around three minutes. I've read almost everything in here and believe me when I say that there's nothing of true use here. However, there's one thing that I can't read. But, I have a feeling that you may be able to."

Agonizing moments pass; an eternity.

 _My lungs…they're burning…_

Kosari's vision starts to fade as her ears ring.

With a few one-handed signs, the seal is broken and Kosari collapses face-forward, gasping for air greedily like a fish out of water. She coughs before gasping again and clutches her chest tightly. Her entire body quickly is enveloped in a general pain and her hands shake.

Placed before her isn't a scroll.

 _It's a…book._

It's an old book. Very old. She turns and sees two glowing sharingan in the darkness and feels his entire presence pressing down on her, keeping her from escaping. "Monkey, I told you—"  
"I can easily kill you in a heartbeat," he says quietly, "Neither of us can defeat them alone."  
"I'm done listening to your ridiculous notions," she hisses, "Trusting you is something I can't do. Teaming—"  
The markings clamp down on her legs and heat up, causing searing pain. Her affected skin quickly turns from a pale pink to a bright and agitated red. A bead of sweat runs down her face as she grips her legs in agony, "H-hey…"

"Listen to me," he orders.

Defiance shines in her eyes before the glint in her eyes fades into pain, "Just listen. That's all I ask, taichō."

"Fine," she manages to say as the pain intensifies.

With seconds, the pain recedes to a dull throbbing. He continues, "This is the only non-scroll I've found in the entire Uchiha library, not just this section. It has one line of Uchiha scribble, something only Uchiha can read, and something else. I'd never seen or heard of another language being used in the world, even after being in ANBU and going around the world. It seems to be composed of a string of foreign kana in varying lengths and a wide variety of combinations. I'd looked through everything to see if there was some sort of key between that and regular kana, but there's nothing. I'd thought that I was at a dead end, so close but yet so far, but I'd found something recently. I was helping Kagami-sama clean and I found old Academy notebooks Shisui used to use. Inside, in the back pages, were pages from someone else's notebook stapled in. He'd added his own little commentary underneath, basically saying how there was a cute transfer student and how he'd cut out parts of her notebook and added it to his, apparently fascinated, but utterly enveloped in a lack of understanding. Later on, he stapled in a photo of her with a young boy looking for certain kunai."

He pauses, examining her face for any reaction. As expected, he gets none.

"Where are you going with this?" she asks, "Besides going through a kid's notebook and explaining to me how you're nothing but a creep, you're not making any—"

"This transfer student was you, taichō," he says bluntly, "Your name was the same. The photo is obviously you. You wrote the pieces he took. Meaning, you knew the foreign kana. You can read what's in this book."

A wave of nausea prevents her from looking at the book. In a frustrated and cornered fit of annoyance, she sweeps her arm to knock the book away, but Monkey sees her arm tense before she can fragment the book and pins her wrist down.

"So I'm right, then," he decides, "If you read this for me, I'll leave you alone. You won't ever have to hear another word about Shisui from me again. If we end up on different sides if you abandon the village, I won't fight you. I'll let you go, even if it means I'll be branded as an accomplice or a traitor," he says, "How does that sound?"

 _I…I could avenge Kakashi with this. This could have what we're both looking for._

She opens the book and points accusingly at the Uchiha lettering, "Read that."

Monkey pulls an extra chair from another aisle and sits beside her, "It says: 'Follow in the footsteps of your ancestors. Find peace within the clan and die around only pure blood.'" He frowns, "I think it's referring to old clan laws. I'm not sure if this still holds, but long ago, the Uchiha clan promoted intermarriage if it meant keeping the clan lines pure. Any Uchiha caught with someone not of the clan would be killed, along with his or her lover. Any children conceived as a result of so-called 'impure union' would be brutally killed along with his parents. In short, marrying or eloping with someone outside the clan was strictly forbidden, punishable by death."

Kosari remains silent.

He turns the page and points to the foreign writing, "It's a little different from the next few pages with everything all weirdly connected but—"

"It says the same," Kosari mutters, "Don't waste my time."

Monkey blinks; surprised she'd read so quickly. _And that she proved me right that she_ does _understand. Now I'm more intrigued than ever…_ "Right…" he turns to the next page.

 _It's almost like the authors thought that every sentence deserved its own page_. Kosari looks at the next page and scans it before frowning, "It's talking about various ways to punish traitorous men versus women. And…how burying the child alive would probably be best to show the blasphemous and true evil side of the child's existence to any other possible traitors."

He turns to the next page and Kosari is barely into the first half of the sentence before she hastily turns to the next page. He frowns, "What was written?"

"More of the same," she lies. _Forced cannibalism…that's awful._

The next page and the next one after that further sicken the Jounin, "Monkey, please. I can't take this."

"Why?"

"It's all about killing and skinning and hanging and burning and murdering and…" Kosari sighs, exasperated, "After this last page I'm done."

He nods, keeping to his word. The last page of the book is neatly written with the entire page filled up with miniscule foreign kana. He watches as Kosari's face pales as she scans it. She unconsciously grips the edge of the table as her eyes go wide. After finishing it, she runs a hand through her hair and stares up at the ceiling. He hesitates to ask what was written, "Taichō—"

"I have a name," she says softly, "Use it."

"Hound," he says, "Was it…?"

"No," she grits her teeth, "It wasn't," she looks down at the book, "I'm afraid it's what we were looking for."

"What did it say?" Monkey asks eagerly.

"Before that," Kosari glances at him, "Tell me your name. Your given name."

"Monkey," he replies on command.

"The one your parents gave you," she corrects.

He rubs the back of his neck, "I've nearly forgotten it," he sighs, "It was Nagadachi."

"Nagadachi-san," she says, "I want this to not be repeated to anyone. Even if you're tortured, you will make sure no one hears this. And, I want you asking me no questions about the Hatake clan."

He frowns, but acquiesces, "Understood," he says formally.

She inhales deeply, "It explains how the children born from different combinations of increasingly stronger clans are much more dangerous. The only exception to this was the Senju, presumably because of the Senju's power and useful abilities, like controlling the Kyuubi. Yet, they mention an even more dangerous combination, one that even the Senju knew well enough not to try. It's an ancient clan, said here to find its roots from the first marriage of a princess to a nobleman of boundless wealth, superior intelligence, and exceptional fighting skill," she follows the lines of words as she says the translation and he watches as she seems to grow more and more weary as the words go on. She runs a hand through her silver hair and continues, "He himself had already sired children, of whom here are stated to become the ancestors of clans around the world, including the Kaguya clan. After his children with the princess were born, it was clear that something was different about his first child, a boy, and the second child, the princess's first-born, a girl. Only five years into her life and the princess's child had not only begun reciting passages from scrolls that took monks years to memorize, but had improved on an old weapon, deemed to be an invention without usefulness; the bow and arrow. With this, the girl quickly quelled various rebellions and helped to consolidate her mother's power. By the age of ten, the girl's power had come to rival that of her father's. She rose to the position of advisor, much higher than her father. Her father, having spent time and money into training and grooming his son for the throne, ordered her assassination after hearing that the girl was planning on becoming simply the 'Emperor', taking away the titles of king and queen. The assassination was successful for a mere four minutes before the girl rose from her pool of blood, harnessed the power of the heavens as rain and thunder and lightning pelted the earth, and killed not only her half-brother, but her father and all of the advisors and most of the noblemen as well. At the age of twenty, the girl was feared across the world to be the most powerful warrior, carrying out military campaigns on her mother's, the queen's, behalf singlehandedly. Not twelve, but thirteen full moons pass—"

"A year," Monkey says, "She was gone for a full year."

"I suppose," Kosari says, "Anyway, after nearly winning the entire world, the girl comes back home and is treated like an alien. Servants scurry away from her, even after she's changed into her regal clothes, and her own mother refuses to see her, remaining locked away in her room. After a week of close observation, the girl finds out that her mother has remarried once more and has birthed two children. She watches as her mother's love for her children grows and hears of a startling plan: her mother and her new husband plan to have the first born, Hagoromo, become king. Distraught, the girl hides in her room. Only two weeks pass before war and chaos break out around the world. Her mother orders her to regain peace in her name, but the girl refuses as tears fall from her for the first time. As the wars outside grow in increasing intensity and threaten the strength of the royal family, the mother decides to take matters in her own hands and defies the taboo to eat the fruit of the God Tree. Within a day, all of the world's wars end. Angry that her own daughter, who for so long had complied with her orders, had defied her, she banishes the girl. The girl leaves and becomes a wandering warrior. She ends up high in the snow-capped mountains where a group of highly skilled men capture her. Depressed, the girl doesn't put up a fight. She is presented to the men's leader as a gift for him to enjoy, but the leader simply turns to look at her before stabbing her until she couldn't move. The leader watches as lightning crackles around her before the girl rises to her feet and pulls the lightning back within her. Weak and tired, the girl begins to fall, but the leader catches her and asks if she remembered him. Shocked, she does. It is her half-brother, having somehow survived. He confesses that his mother, a lowly servant, had blamed him for killing his father and demanded he leave and never come back. The girl sympathizes and the two concoct a plan to reenter the imperial palace and regain their dignity. In the meantime, the mother had turned into a demon, feared by all, and wielded a terrifying power.

"After nearly fifteen years, the two return to find that the mother had become a tyrant and killed anyone who got in her way. The two children in the palace soon exhibit the same terrifying power and a crazed envy drives the mother to try to kill her children. The girl stops her mother along with her half-brother while the younger progeny seal the mother away in the moon. Her power, called 'chakra', is taken. The younger two, emboldened by their win, split the chakra amongst just the two of themselves. The girl and her older brother are left with mere residue from having taken the brunt of all the mother's fearsome and deadly attacks and having held her down. Hagoromo later on has two sons, the founders of the Uchiha and Senju, and is named Emperor. Infuriated that neither she nor her brother had been recognized for having stopped her deadly rampage, the girl and her brother stage a coup to overthrow Hagoromo's power, but without chakra Hagoromo and his younger twin brother Hamura easily defeat them and chase them out of the royal palace within an inch of their lives. Later, the brother becomes enchanted with a woman and marries her, eventually forming the Uzumaki clan after his descendants join with the descendants join with the ancestors of the Senju to create a powerful clan.

"Alone, the girl founds a clan of exceptional fighting skill, but keeps her and her clan's existence a secret; without chakra they can't possibly win against their chakra-wielding cousins. She remains in the snow-capped mountains where she'd found her brother, as her clan grows more and more skilled in chakra-less weaponry. Her clan, imbued with resent for the Senju, and particularly the Uchiha—the Uchiha often killed small children and used their hair as a replacement textile material when gold wasn't available to embroider their kimono with—and sorrow for their ancestor and Hagoromo's betrayal…"

Kosari takes in a shaky breath, "This clan, with unrivaled weaponry skill, superior intelligence, secret wealth, longevity, better records of the past and knowledge of hidden secrets that not even the Uchiha or Senju could comprehend, along with better taijutsu, powerful, pure blood, and perhaps even an ability to harness the skies, is the Hatake Clan," Kosari stands up suddenly, kicking Monkey away, reading the last parts incredulously, "Lies! There's no way…he couldn't have…" Kosari feels a wave of rage crash over her, " _Sakumo!_ You knew about this! You should've told me! You should've told me to keep Kakashi away from him!" she beats the wall with a fist and a sizeable crack appears.

"Hound," Monkey grabs her, "What did the last part say?"

"Let go of me!" she shrieks, "Damn Uchiha! I should have never come to this damned village!"

Monkey wastes no time pinning her against the wall, "Hound, I don't want to force you to tell me."

"Then let go," she says frantically, "Let go!"

"Only if you tell me," he says, "Please."

"No!" she shuts her eyes, not letting him cast any genjutsu with his glowing red eyes, "Leave me alone. You Uchiha have done enough!"

"Kosari, be quiet," he says quietly. "Kagami-sama is coming. Technically, we're both trespassers. There's no way he'll let us go without having a Yamanaka wipe our minds. He'll reseal this place and we won't ever know how to—"

"'A Hatake and Uchiha, should their heirs join forces against their own clans, wield the strongest eyes and greatest power of the heavens before igniting the world's wars. Together, they are the strongest and can obliterate anything. Love must be forbidden; their combined power will destroy their clans and progeny between them will be the demise of their clans, their parents, and themselves. This forbidden child is a manifestation of a warning against diluting a clan's pure blood. In short, chaos and horror will be revived once more should any child's heart beat under both clans' crests," Kosari says in a rushed whisper. "Let me go…"

"Hound. Don't you remember the War? Don't you remember ANBU? It's no wonder you and I were the strongest and why we didn't die when we went up against all those Kiri shinobi and why we had new records for the most Assassination missions completed in ANBU in such a short period of time. We alone were able to keep Konoha safe," he says seriously, "But, I'll keep to my word. You read this for me. I'll leave you alone."

He lets go before flickering out. Kosari grabs her flashlight and balls her fists as she senses Kagami quickly closing in on the library.

 _Kakashi…_

 _I…_

She, too, flickers out and grabs Monkey's sleeve.

"Wait."

* * *

Nagadachi is quick to return to Kosari's apartment with several files that she'd asked for him to get. As the night sky fades into a reddish hue of morning, Nagadachi knocks on her door, "I'm back."

Kosari opens the door wearing a long-sleeve white shirt underneath a sleeve-less sky-blue jacket with the hood pulled over her silver hair. In one hand is a cup of steaming…hot water. In the other is a worn-looking book. She lets him in and closes the door behind. She studies him, finding his casual clothes consisting of a black shirt and grey running pants and sandals and lack of a mask to be startling. He stares back, "Is there something wrong?"

"No," she says and hands him a steaming cup of tea. "While you were gone, I found an old book that my grandfather gave me. It's not special, but after flipping through it, I found a little more on the girl, the founder of the Hatake clan. There's a drawing of her," she holds the book up open to the page with a colored picture is.

"She looks an awful lot like—"

"Me," Kosari mutters, "I know. She even has the same mark from her cheek to her neck that I have," she pulls her jacket and shirt back and exposes her skin to the light. "All Hatake had silver hair…which I suppose is why the Uchiha used to use it when gold wasn't available. I don't know why, but I find that little bit interesting."

Monkey plucks out a strand and she narrows her eyes, "Ow."

"It _does_ look like a silver thread," he says, examining it with his red eyes.

"Nagadachi-san, deactivate your sharingan," Kosari says, "You're wasting your chakra."

"Can't," he says simply, "Been like this for a while now. I just use a mild genjutsu to cover this up when I'm on a mission or around Hawk."

"Why?" Kosari knits her brows.

Nagadachi purses his lips, "I was kicked out of the clan after I joined ANBU Black Ops; Fugaku-sama didn't know where my loyalty would lie, especially because Black Ops is much more demanding than regular ANBU, so I'd almost never be home. Angry that I'd apparently chosen ANBU over the clan, he threw me out and sealed my sharingan to make it harder for me to remain in ANBU. He expected me to be unable to take it and come crawling back. I don't have very large reserves and yes, it being activated does drain me considerably. But," he spreads his arms out wide, "I made it."

Kosari puts her cup down, "Earlier…you said that Shisui took away your father's ability to speak."

"Yes," he agrees, "I did say that," he runs a hand through his straight short but slightly curly and nods, "Kagami-sama is my father."

* * *

"You what?" Rin bolts up from her table. The table wobbles and her cup falls over and shatters on the ground. Her brown eyes are wide in disbelief. Her chair falls over and makes a startling sound. Tears slip out as she stands with her lips parted in horror.

"You idiot!" Rin grabs his collar, standing on her tiptoes, "Why did you do that?! Are you out of your mind!?"

"Hey," a fluffy woman behind the counter with a white apron on and her hands on her hips, "Take your fight outside."

Rin drags him out and with surprising strength; she thrusts him on the ground. Her eyes burn with anger, "Explain, Jiraiya-sama."

"Damn girl got me cornered," Jiraiya says gruffly, "What was I supposed to do, lie? ANBU Black Ops are trained for lie detection, Nohara. My being here without Kakashi was evidence enough. There wasn't much I could do."

"Don't give me that crap!" Rin argues.

Jiraiya stands, "What would you have done? You would've broken down into tears, profusely apologizing—"

"No—"

"Yes, you would've," Jiraiya says, "It was inevitable. Do me a favor, Rin."

"You're not in any position—"

"Make sure she doesn't kill herself," he mutters, "That kind of thing is pretty prevalent in the Elite Jounin Corps and Black Ops. That, and drugs. Wouldn't be surprised if you searched her apartment and found opium or something," he says darkly before walking away.

" _Sorry, Rin."_

Rin whirls around, "Jiraiya-sama…" but he's already gone. Rin takes a reflexive step towards him before dropping to her knees and bursting into sobs, " ** _Kakashi!_** "

* * *

"I'm sorry, but," Hiruzen's face is ashen, "The date of the vigil hasn't been set yet."

 _Not…set_ yet _? Why had they been planning without me? I, the last of kin, should be in charge of all of it._ "I see," Kosari intones. _There's only five more weeks until the Exams. What are they waiting for? His body? Good luck fucking find it. He probably destroyed his body to keep other countries from experimenting with it._

Hiruzen shifts a few papers on his desk before finding what he was looking for, "There's something I'd like for your team to do, Kosari," Hiruzen tosses her a scroll. The woman catches it and reads it. Without batting an eye, she looks up at him, "Hokage-sama, it's unsafe. Why not just send me?"

"I think you know the answer to that," Hiruzen says, "We've only five weeks as it is. The last list of Genin from Iwa—"

"Iwa is participating, sir?" Monkey blurts out.

Hiruzen smiles and looks over at Kosari, "I see your time out of ANBU has rubbed off extremely quickly on Monkey, Kosari."

"Not at all, sir," Kosari keeps her tone level despite the venom in her mouth at the jab. _What's he implying?_

"Yes, they are," Hiruzen looks back at the ANBU leaning against the door, "I was surprised too. The numbers are surprising as well; they're sending ten teams. Kumo is also participating, sending just two teams. Suna is sending just one and Kiri is sending one. There are a few more from smaller villages, but this year's team numbers are lower than I had expected: only around fifty teams. We may not even need the Second Round," Hiruzen takes a drag from his pipe.

"When should we depart?" Kosari refers to the mission as he blows out perfect rings.

"Today," Hiruzen says. Then he smiles again, "Bring Monkey along."

"Yes, sir," the two bow deeply before leaving his office.

* * *

"This is Monkey, an ANBU in Black Ops," Kosari jerks a thumb at him as the four walk away from Konoha. "I'm sure you three remember him."

"Yeah," Naruto crosses his arms, "He's that jerk that beat the crap out of us."

"Different ANBU," Kosari says.

"Why's he coming along? Our mission is just observation, right?" Sasuke narrows his eyes at the ANBU.

"More like infiltration and intelligence gathering," Kosari says, "And lethal self-defense if necessary."

The three pale slightly at that. "You mean…killing?" Hinata asks.

"Yes," Kosari says seriously, "The Exams will have Genin who kill easier than they breathe. Where you're going, it's eat or be eaten."

A long period of silence passes before Sasuke speaks up again, "What were your Exams like, sensei?"  
Kosari gives him a sideways glance as the evening rays begin to die down, "Chuunin Exams, huh?" she goes forward and decides to tell him the truth, "It was terrifying. We were given three days to find an object hidden within the entire swamp. My teammates tired themselves out way too quickly, mainly because of their precious dojutsu scouring the area for enemies, and also because the temperature soared over a hundred degrees. By the second day, they were burned out. As I was setting up traps, they were taken from our campsite. I had much lower chakra capacities than they had and I spent a good portion of it on getting past the better traps my enemies had and trying to cool off without going to the lake; it would be a bloodbath since it was a small lake and the only water source. When I finally reached my teammates and their kidnappers, I was out of chakra. Around six or seven enemies surrounded me, separating me from my teammates. I held them back with taijutsu, but I was too tired and too slow. They managed to sink their kunai and senbon in my back and arms, and several senbon through my hands, making any last-ditch jutsu impossible. All I could think of was how much blood I was surrounded by. I could feel my strength and consciousness draining. I blacked out after that. I woke up being carried by one of my teammates, and the other carrying a broken gold dagger, supposedly the object we'd had to find. We made it in the nick of time and moved on to the Finals and…" Kosari shoves her hands in her pockets, "And the three of us became Chuunin. The end."

"What?" Naruto frowns, "Who'd you fight in the Finals?"

"I don't remember," Kosari says, not looking at him, "It doesn't matter."

* * *

"We can't take forever," Itachi warns, "Their ANBU are truly their Kage's senbon," the teen's somber black eyes almost bore into Shisui's glowing red ones. Shisui eyes the teen in the middle of a training ground, beating a wooden post to a pulp. After a rather large splinter embeds itself in his hand, he stops and examines the wound with a wince.

"I'm going," Shisui says.

Itachi nods, but his entire body goes rigid as soon as Shisui disappears. He can't sense anyone and his eyes glow red— _I don't see anyone_ —after sweeping the jagged rocks surrounding them, yet he can't help but feel as if he's being watched. Then again, Pein was nowhere and Pein was everywhere and just being in the Akatsuki hideout made his skin crawl.

 _Shisui…hurry back._

Shisui wears just a navy blue shirt and black pants without any symbols or insignia. In less than a blink of an eye, he appears in front of the panting boy. The boy, on his hands and knees, at first doesn't notice the S-Rank criminal. He eventually stands and regains his bearings before flinching, "Sneaking up on—"

He stops midway in his sentence; his eyes going wide, his lips parting in shock, and disbelief in his eyes. Then, he smirks widely and his eyes turn a deep red, "Uchiha Shisui! Fight me!"

 _What?_ Shisui raises a brow, "No."

"What?" the boy utters, "If you won't make the first move, I will!" he lunges at him with a kunai.

Shisui disappears. The boy stops in his tracks, surprised. He whirls around, expecting Shisui to be behind him, but instead receives a mouthful of dirt. Sitting on top of him is Shisui. He traps the boy's arms underneath his slender frame and pulls out a needle and a vial with a thin tube running between them. As he tears open a small alcohol swab he says, "You don't bear the 'Uchiha' name. Yet, you have the sharingan. Were you adopted? Where are your birth parents?"

"None of your business!" the indignant boy says, his face colored in shame that he'd been downed so easily. _With these eyes, I should've seen it coming!_

" _Cold!"_ the boy hisses as the seemingly icy swab runs along his skin.

"Well," Shisui says, "I could kill you if you don't talk."

The boy sweats a little at that, but pride overtakes his fear, "So what? I bet Raikage-sama is coming over here right now to kick your ass!"

Shisui simply leans over and looks him in the eye, "I do not fear the Raikage."

"Arrogance!" the boy shrieks, "You should! Raikage-sama can kill you in an instant!"

Shisui inserts the needle and the blood springs up through the tube and hastily deposits itself in the vial. The boy gasps as Shisui does this, "H-hey! What're you doing?!"

" _'None of your business'_ ," Shisui mocks, "Right?" there's a twinkle in Shisui's eyes: amusement.

"Don't patronize me!" the boy squawks. "Just tell me how these eyes work!"

This surprises Shisui, "You don't know? What of you parents? Didn't they explain this to you? Aren't they Uchiha?"

"No!" the boy blurts out, "I-I mean…" he trails off, glaring at the ground as his eyes return to a color of the deep forest leaves a night: a green almost black, only a deep, dark green when the light shone upon his eyes, and seemingly black at any other time. Shisui is mesmerized for a moment.

"I shouldn't be telling you this!" the boy clutches his arm and takes a few steps back, "You're a criminal! You killed your clan and, and, you're," his eyes widen to perfect saucers, "You're here to kill me!" he stumbles back and looks at Shisui in fear, "Help! _Help! Uchiha Shisui is here! He's going to kill me! Someone he—"_

Shisui's spinning sharingan catches his black forest green eyes and they roll in the back of his head. He slumps, unconscious in an instant. Shisui looks up and sees Itachi appear next to him, "We've got to go. We've been surrounded."

As soon as those words leave Itachi's mouth, bombs go off around the two Uchiha. Shisui shoves Itachi out of the way of the most violent blast and takes the brunt, not wanting to use his mangekyō to conserve chakra.

From the shadows emerges a figure, shirtless, and encased in menacing lightning armor. His beady black eyes burn holes in Shisui's, whose clothes are singed. He sheds his shirt, mere threads clinging by a few strands, revealing a fishnet undershirt. Itachi stands next to him and narrows his eyes slightly, "We did not come here to incite a war."

"It seems you _scum_ have," the Raikage growls, "While that boy might be a living disgrace, I will not allow you worthless pieces of trash to get at him. He is a Kumogakure Genin; not some weak Konoha Genin you can sink your fangs into. He's my Genin. He's my sharingan—my tool to do something Konoha is too soft and feeble to do!" lightning shrieks around him as Shisui's skin crawls with the intensity of the Raikage's chakra. He lets his eyes fade into black, making the Raikage stop and analyze his action; he was about to attack but it seems as if Shisui had another trick up his sleeve. As plans to obliterate the Uchiha and their skillset whirl around in his head, Shisui is able to buy time. He looks the Kage in the eye, unafraid, "As Itachi said before, we did not come here to incite a war. Good night, Raikage," Shisui says as the two disappear in his teleportation jutsu.

The Raikage angrily races after them, vanishing from his waves of ANBU's eyes. The ANBU, like a crashing wave, hit the soil and advance on the heels of their Kage and his target.

The Raikage knows a very important difference between the Uchiha and the Kīroi Senkō: while Minato was able to teleport over long distances (up to about five miles) and proved tracking, tracing, and ambushing impossible, Shisui could teleport only up to about two miles away. While he too left no trace, he could not travel nearly as far as Minato could.

In other words…

 _You're not getting away!_

* * *

"Just one room, miss?" the grey-haired wrinkly old woman looks at the young woman with curiosity. She leans in closer to Kosari, "Your strong friend there must be quite the looker. Are you sure you don't want to reserve two? I wouldn't want to ruin these children's minds if I were you."

 _What?_ Kosari's composure doesn't fall, "I'd like to reserve _one_ room, please," her obsidian eyes bore into the woman's deep green ones.

"Very well," the woman sighs, handing her two room keys, " _Just in case_ ," she whispers.

Kosari grabs them from her and barely keeps venom from her, "Thank you," and starts up a flight of stairs. She angrily slams open the door and begins setting up traps. Kosari rapidly weaves the wire, "'Just in case'…what is that supposed to mean? I'm a paying customer; don't waste my time and argue with me," she mutters under her breath.

"Is something the matter, Kosari-san?" Monkey asks, his eyes glimmering with suppressed laughter.

A senbon barely nicks his neck, "Don't talk to me," Kosari warns, her eyes flashing.

"Sensei, just what will we be observing?" Hinata asks as she dumps her bag down and plops down on the tatami mat lined floor.

Kosari feels the scroll in her pocket grow a bit heavier, "We'll be infiltrating a high-profile party. Within the ranks of the elite is our target."

"And if we find him, what do we do with him?" Sasuke asks.

Kosari nicks her finger on a wire, "We probably won't be isolating the target. Simply finding out any and all details on the target will be sufficient."

"It sounds like even you don't know," Naruto notes, "Or, is this actually an assassination mission?" his blue eyes turn icy.

For a moment, Kosari wonders if that's what the Iwa shinobi last saw when Minato unleashed his prowess upon them during the War. She'd seen Minato angry and was always glad to never be on the receiving end of his anger. Yet, she can't help but wonder if those icy blue eyes were much more than just an orphan with talent.

Kosari looks at him seriously, "Uzumaki-san, this target, as I was told, is dangerous. Nothing more and nothing less. You can make up your own ideas regarding him or her or the mission. In fact, it's best if you think about all this through a lens like that; you don't, and I don't, know what will happen upon infiltration."

"If it's a party," Hinata begins slowly, "Don't we have to blend in?"

"Correct," Kosari says, "Which is why," she pulls out her scroll and presses a hand to a few of the matrixes, "I've brought these," the smoke dissipates to reveal three suits and two formal dresses, one a deep blue with a white bird at the shoulder to match Hinata's dark hair, and the other a white dress with an increasing pink gradient as it reaches the unpronounced ruffles at the bottom.

"…"

"They don't look exactly exhilarated, Kosari," Monkey whispers with a hand between the Genin's horrified eyes and his mask, "And neither am I. Won't it be easier just to have the two of us do this? Getting the target would take no time at all."

'This isn't a break for you,' Kosari reminds him, 'Just because you're being given time off from Assassination duty doesn't mean you can just sit back and relax. This is practice for them, Monkey,' she signs, "The party is tonight. Before that, you three must learn how to dance."

"No," Sasuke bristles, " _No_."

"Didn't they teach Uchiha kids to dance?" Kosari tilts her head slightly.

"Wha—I—" Sasuke sputters, "I'm not dancing," he says firmly.

"We have to blend in, or we'll be thrown out or worse, found out," Kosari replies, "Don't worry, Uchiha-san. It isn't hard."

" ** _No_** **,"** he grinds out with eyes blazing with dissident.

"Come on, Sasuke-chan," Naruto swings an arm around his shoulder, "It'll be fun!"

* * *

"I look ridiculous," Sasuke mutters, tugging at the ends of the suit. Monkey had shed his mask, uniform, and gloves for the suit and kept the henge. The man slightly adjusts Sasuke's collar, much to Sasuke's discomfort. He angrily pushes the ANBU away, glaring hatefully, "Don't touch me."

"Yes, yes," Monkey sighs, and turns to focus on helping Naruto redo his buttons, which were all in the wrong slit. Monkey ends up kneeling and redoing all of the buttons.

"Oh that's how you're supposed to do it?" Naruto asks.

"Yes, you start from the bottom and carefully work your way up," Monkey says, adjusting the boy's sleeves to rest without strain or wrinkle, "Be careful not to spill food on this, Uzumaki-san. This is rather expensive and I don't think it's beyond imagination to say that replacing this may come out of Kosari-san's pay."

"How much do you get paid?" Naruto asks.

"Enough," Monkey replies with a sly smile.

"I think that Kosari-sensei used to be in ANBU," Naruto says, "What kinds of things do you do in ANBU?"

"Mainly Assassinations and Recruit Training," Monkey says. "There's other Divisions, but I don't serve those often."

"How about Kosari-sensei?" Sasuke suddenly asks.

"More often than not, the former," Monkey says.

The silence doesn't stretch on for long as Sasuke quickly asks another question, "Who did she work with?"

Monkey tilts his head a bit, wondering where the boy's sudden keen interest in his friend's (so-called 'idiot') questions, "No…one. I think. She and I never talked about that sort of thing. She only talked to anyone if it was to teach him or her something or give him or her an order. I was always out of the village, as she was supposed to be, but she had a special arrangement with the Head of ANBU Corps and would have one day of rest within the village a month. She had much, much more assignments than I did, so I suppose that must've been why."

* * *

"It's quite simple," Kosari says, "All you have to do is just move forwards, right, back, and left. You're making a small square with your feet and end up where you started. For you two anyway," Kosari glances at Sasuke and Naruto, "You lead. The girls follow."

"That's not—"

"Life isn't fair," Kosari knows what Hinata was going to say. The girl had always been rather strong-willed; something she supposes must've been an inherent trait in her clan. Hinata backs down slightly, but still fumes under the surface.

"Also, Uchiha-san," Kosari gives him an eerie smile, "You want to be a Jounin, right?"

"Of course," Sasuke says, thoughts of killing Itachi with his Jounin strength coursing through his mind.

"Since Jounin are expected to perform on a higher level, it includes nearly all aspects of shinobi life. This includes assassinations, guarding, optional Genin training, and infiltration, among others. You must be able to adapt to any situation for infiltration and as a result, there is compulsory dance training for a month," Kosari says a little too cheerfully.

Sasuke pales and his mouth goes dry.

Monkey clears his throat, "Kosari-san and I will demonstrate."

Kosari grasps his left hand in her right as he places his hand on her back as she places her hand on his shoulder. He begins with a stride forward, to which she steps back with, before moving to the left, forward, and then right. She lets go and looks at them clad in their infiltration uniforms, and places her hands on her hips, "Easy."


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N This is an AU story. Heh…sorry for not saying this earlier. (But, I hope you enjoy this story nonetheless.)  
Continue~**

…

With an hour and a half of practice, Team 7 had managed to get the hang of the simple dance routine. Kosari wonders, in the back of her mind, if the event might include more complicated dance routines, but she knows it's futile to worry about something like that now. _Even I'm not that good at the most complicated ones._

It's not like they had that much time, anyway.

The five Konoha shinobi, under the moonlit sky, walk towards the rather expansive estate. Naruto stops in his tracks, his blue eyes shining with awe. Kosari gives him a sideways look before Sasuke grabs Naruto and drags him along, "This guy hosting it is probably the daimyo or something. Don't look so shocked, idiot."

In front of the entrance are four guards and a tall, muscular man with a scowl. Kosari leads the three around the estate until she finds a window. Her black eyes flit from left to right. _No one._

She examines the window and finds a lock standing between her and getting in. She takes out a senbon and carefully picks the lock. Within a few moments, a soft click sounds as the window gives way to a gap from the sill. She pushes it open and enters first, followed by the Genin, and then Monkey. She glances back at her Genin, shrouded in a henge, before exiting the small room, presumably a storage closet. She grips the doorknob and turns it as she tries to sense if anyone is outside.

 _No one._

Without a shred of doubt in her heart, she goes forward and steps into a long hallway with doors on both sides, leading to small and unique little spheres of humanity, a pitch black end with only a small stained glass window depicting something ancient, and a brightly lit other end. She turns towards the brightly lit end and strides towards it, dispelling any fear that threatens to topple the notion that the mission would go smoothly.

* * *

"You two go with Monkey," Kosari orders Sasuke and Hinata. "Uzumaki-san, you're with me. Let's go," she turns and goes up a flight of elegant wooden stairs, her hands running along the smooth banister. She looks down at the three melt into the crowd of people dressed just as formally before looking at Naruto, who catches up to her. His generic brown eyes and striking blonde hair bounce slightly as he jogs up the stairs, overtaking her easily. He waits at the top, patiently. She can see under his easygoing façade that he's nervous. A bead of sweat rolls down his face, which he wipes away.

"I guess you didn't take all of us because we'd attract attention, right?" Naruto asks as he trots behind her silent footsteps and eyes that analyze the doorways and hallways that go on forever.

"You could say that," she says quietly.

"It's not just that?" Naruto asks, curious.

"You three are a team," she says, "What's the point in assigning you in teams if you three learn the exact same things, never to rely on one another? It's good for all of you to know the basics, sure, but I'm playing to each of your specialties. Uchiha-san and Hyūga-san have their keen eyes," she pauses. _At least, Hyūga-san does. I don't think Uchiha-san has activated his sharingan yet._ She turns to face him fully, "Your mother, during her time as an Academy student, hated studying and focused pranks, whether it be from having smoke bombs explode in the Hokage's office when the door was unlocked to sneaking into heavily guarded and secured areas and stealing priceless items. I've been always very, very busy with my ANBU career until I became your sensei, so I don't know how the three of you grew up. But, I have a feeling that you'd be good at this sort of sneaking around or, to put it simply, infiltration tactics."

"How…?" Naruto's blue eyes are wide, shining.

"She was famous," Kosari shrugs simply, "There was a few kid in my class that wanted nothing more than overtake her title as Master Prankster, and talked incessantly about doing so. I never knew about her until I looked into his crazed obsessions."

"What about my dad?" desperation laces his voice.

"Smart guy," Kosari says. "Strong guy. He fought in a completely different company than I did in the War, but he took on an entire Iwa army and won singlehandedly. The medic, Nohara Rin, was his student. Ask her."

Naruto stands in awe, stuck in his own thoughts.

"Come on, we've got a mission."

* * *

"Dangerous targets are almost always one of two things: surrounded by allies, or lone wolves. The more dangerous they are, the more cunning they are, or simply have luck on their side. They won't reveal themselves unless they want you to see them," Monkey says quietly as the two children tag along behind him.

"Shouldn't I just—" Hinata starts.

"No," Monkey says, "You want to blend in until you're almost positive that the target is the person you're following. Whether he's alone or in a group, he's going to be extra vigilant. He'll notice."

Monkey's eyes sweep the crowd before him before he plunges into the crowd of moving bodies, dressed in elegant black suits, with and without ties, dressed in dresses, with and without flashy designs. He makes his way to a table lined with drinks of all kinds and takes one, discreetly plopping a pill in it. _I've no idea if this is poisoned or laced with anything. I only have a few of these anti-narcotic pills. Danzō-sama won't be happy I've wasted one of these on a petty mission like this, but…_

It's then that Monkey notices something very, very strange. All of the men and all of the women have sport silver hair, long and short, shiny and matte, light and grey in tone, curly and not, and eyes that range in color from a green that even when the light hits the iris it's almost black…but not quite, to a green that is a vibrant green grass to a yellowish green.  
He looks up at the second floor of the estate for Kosari and Naruto, but doesn't see them. He looks around again and sees a man with hair as black as his own smile at him as he ascends the stairway. Monkey blinks and the man has disappeared in a room. After sensing both Kosari and Naruto's chakra, he's somewhat relieved.

"Who was that?" Sasuke narrows his eyes.

Monkey isn't sure. He notices a few women making their way towards him and grimaces.

"Hey there," they purr, "I'm Yukiko." And "I'm Setsuna."

"What's your name?" another woman drapes her arm around his shoulders.

"You don't look like you're from around here," another says softly.

"Don't tell me…" Setsuna says dramatically, covering her mouth with a gloved hand, "You've crashed this party?"

"They do stick out," Yukiko says.  
"Oh, Setsuna-cha~n, you should've seen the woman hanging around him earlier," another woman gushes, "With _black_ eyes!" her grass green eyes flash brilliantly. "And besides, mister, you shouldn't hang around an ugly woman like that, one with no class. Women like her are nothing but trouble."

Monkey roughly pushes away the women, "I'm sorry, I need some air," he grabs Sasuke and Hinata and walks out. He bursts through the entrance and leans against a tree, pinching the bridge of his nose. _Those women…_

* * *

Kosari grips the doorknob, rippling chakra through it to deactivate any seals that might've prevented her from entering, and turns the knob, halfway expecting some trap to spring and possibly blow up in her face. To her surprise, nothing happens. She enters first before determining quite quickly that her and Naruto were the only ones in the room. She pulls Naruto in before closing the door and looking left to right, scanning the room, "Uzumaki-san, look in that desk's drawers. Be careful of any traps," she says as she turns to the larger, probably a lot more dangerous, bureau with several drawers of varying sizes.

As the two flip through the neatly organized papers and files, Kosari grows more and more aware of the growing quietness of the hall where Monkey and Sasuke and Hinata are. She focuses chakra to her ears to enhance her hearing, at the expense of her other senses.

"…clear on the plan? I want this to go off flawlessly."  
"Yes, ma'am."

"What of the budding algae designed cakes? You in kitchen four have prepped accordingly, right? I want all of my ingredients set to be mixed and baked. The oven should be preheated and outfitted with a new pilot light."

"Those have already been set into motion. All we're waiting for is your go-ahead."

"Good," a gruff voice replies.

Kosari is almost taken aback by the seriousness of the meeting across the hallway. _It's just cake…_ She sighs and closes the drawer, having found nothing of note. She moves on to another cabinet, this time finding a few files on a few Konoha shinobi. As she flips through the files, she comes across one name that she knows rather well.

 _Why is Nohara Rin's file here?_

Kosari begins to read more closely and her heart stops when she sees another name.

 _Orochimaru._

"Uh…sensei," Naruto says slowly, "I think you should take a look at this."

Kosari strides over, nearly collapsing from the sudden apprehension in the lump in her throat. She seals the files she'd found hastily into a scroll. She takes the folder that Naruto holds and a wave of chilling cold shudders through her from the fingers that grasp the folder to the tips of her toes to every last follicle on her head.

Naruto stands patiently for a few moments before he slips into a feeling of general discomfort. Kosari stands silent, her eyes wide and glassy. If the pages hadn't been clamped together with a paperclip, the pages would've fluttered to the ground as she flicks through page after page. Naruto himself hadn't really looked at it much, just the first few pages that said something about kekkei genkai and Konoha. It was rather in-depth and very detailed and incredibly dull; science had never been something he was particularly interested in. Shinobi tactics, in comparison, had been the highlight of his Academy career.

But, sharp and pointy things were his real interest.

"Sensei?"

Especially throwing them.

"Sensei."

He supposes, to some extent, that what he'd found might've been some village secret.

 _Again?_

Finding that scroll was fun and all, but putting it back before the ANBU captain found him was stressful and made the whole ordeal completely not worth his time.

"Kosari-sensei."

But, learning a few jutsu was cool, at the time. They're useful, even now. Especially the shadow clone technique.

"We…" Kosari whispers, urgent, "We need to go."

"What?" Naruto blinks, "What is this, anyway?"  
"We need to go," Kosari repeats.

"Why?" Naruto says with a slight firmness in his voice, "What are these papers?"

Kosari shakes her head as she takes a scroll from her hostler under her dress strapped to her leg and seals the papers away. She grabs Naruto and drags him outside.

* * *

"Yeah, and he didn't even stand a chance!" he exclaims loudly. His eyes gleam with glee as the group of Academy students presses further towards him and condenses in a squirmy squid-like gang of insatiable hunger for knowledge. Or rather, simply recognition and to follow the latest trend. Not much really happened in Kumo, being so far from much of anything than rock and sky, other than the super-popular rumor that the two infamous Uchiha murderers had visited Kumo.

Looking for him.

"You're so cool, Haruki-sama!" a small first-year Academy girl squeals with her little blue pigtails bouncing as she turns this way and that way as she childishly squirms in delight at being so close to the 'celebrity'. Kumo never really had any famous shinobi like Konoha did, except for the Raikage and his predecessors and Killer B. And, of course, the new addition: Imagawa Haruki. His name, originally a bland and forgettable one, had turned into a household name and small children to elderly women would stop him on the street and eagerly ask how he'd managed to survive coming in contact with the Uchiha killer.

"Could you show us your sharingan?" a young girl pleads.

"Sure," he grins and his eyes light up red with a single tomoe.

The children shout with excitement.

"Amazing!"

"My new favorite color!"

"How'd you beat him, Haruki-dono?" a young boy cries out, his eyes stars with admiration.

Haruki leans back further on his lavish seat in the middle of the training ground in the shade of a tree. He snaps his fingers at a second-year girl with long blonde hair and she adheres to his command to fan him faster. He sighs in contentment, "Oh, you want to hear about that?" his black eyes are half-lidded above his smug smile.

"Yes, sir!" the children all bow excitedly.

He snaps his fingers at another child, in their last year of the Academy, and the boy quickly hands him another skewer of grilled chicken.

With a smack of his lips, he starts, "I sensed the guy coming before he even was in my sight. I was training hard, as I normally do, and then the guy comes rushing at me. I activate my sharingan and whip out my kunai and almost slice his head off! He tries some taijutsu with me, but it's obvious I'm no match for his mediocre skills. He bitterly says that he'll get me next time and runs away with tears in his eyes."

The crowd of children gushes with amazement.

"You're so cool!"

"Can you train me after class?"

"Me too!"

"How about me?"

The children start to grab at him, trying to get him to listen to just them and only them. Haruki nervously smiles as he tries to free himself from the grabby children. He hears a _rip_ and begins to panic. _Not my favorite shirt!_

He looks up and sees Korohi walking by with his hands in his pockets.

"Korohi! Help me!" Haruki cries out.

Korohi continues walking calmly.

"Hey!" Haruki yells, getting a little more desperate.

Korohi doesn't stop.

"I get it—you're just intimidated by me!" Haruki laughs, "Aren't you!"

A kunai whizzes next to his ear and nicks—"Why would I be intimidated by a liar like you?" Korohi's eyes burn with detestation.

In the blink of an eye, the children disperse in silence.

"Why wouldn't you be? Just because you graduated early doesn't mean you're stronger than me. I have the sharingan, and you don't," he grins as he crosses his arms. "Plus, you can't prove that pretty scathing insult. You weren't even there."

"Don't insult Haruki-sama!" a small girl wearing a pink dress haughtily says with scowl.

"You think you're stronger than me?" Korohi raises a brow, "You've never trained a day in your life and surround yourself with mere children who can't even hold a kunai right. Kami, you've never even been out of the village."

"And you have?" Haruki snorts, "Yeah, right, _brat_. There's no way you're stronger than me."

"Why're you so eager to get your ass kicked?" Korohi glares at the taller boy.

"Right back at you," Haruki steps towards him with his shining sharingan.

"Get him, Haruki-sama!" the crowd of fans cries.

A moment later, Haruki charges at the younger Genin. Korohi blurs from the Uchiha's sight and reappears behind him. He quickly grabs the older boy and spins on a heel before taking a step forward and slams him against a tree. Haruki manages to soften the impact and rebounds at him with a split lip. Korohi narrowly dodges the boy's kunai swiping left and right and arcing up towards his neck. His ink black eyes catch the sunlight as they calculate and his hands quickly form seals.

Haruki, overwhelmed by the ability to…almost predict the seals, he doesn't copy them. His eyes go wide in shock. Orange flames consume his vision and he narrowly dodges the inferno unleashed before him. He ducks into a tree and watches in awe as the flames burn a bright orange. When they die down, Haruki jumps down and approaches Korohi. Korohi throws kunai at the boy, which Haruki manages to catch, "Where did you learn that?"

"None of your business," Korohi spits. Haruki's sharingan fades into a black and Korohi is quick to throw a punch, causing Haruki to hit the floor, "I don't ever want to hear you talking about those inhuman murderers ever again, much less to innocent children! If I do hear you talking about them again," Korohi's eyes boil with hate, "I won't hold back."

The boy shoves his hands in his pockets, leaving Haruki to lie on the smoking grass in pain. The children shuffle away from him, not seeing him as cool or strong anymore. He'd just lost to a…

"Damn cocky brat," Haruki mutters, "Just who does he think he is—some kind of genius? I'll get him in the Exams, along with that famous Uchiha Sasuke."

"Uchiha Sasuke, huh?" a cold voice echoes from the trees. Haruki dusts himself off and looks up at his sensei.

"Ah, Darui-sensei," Haruki says jovially, "Sorry, you weren't supposed—"

"Is that your wish?" Darui asks, slouching as he puts his hands in his pockets and almost glares at his student.

Haruki nervously rubs the back his neck and sighs, "I guess," he glances up at him with a little bit of admiration, "I mean, I just want to learn how these work and if I'm stronger than that Uchiha that they all talk about."

"Pack your bags," Darui says easily as if he were simply talking about the weather.

"What?"

"You heard me," Darui's eyes turn cold, "You want to go to Konoha that badly? Fine. Better to get your acquainted with that place the sooner the better right? Your teammates are already by the gates, along with C's team. We're setting out today."

* * *

"Hey! That's enough!"

Suigetsu's body was halfway in a puddle and the other torso half holding Chojūro's sword with two hands on each side. His toothy grin turns into a grimace in effort as he strains between the two black-eyed shinobi.

"What do you mean?" Chojūro asks quietly, pulling his sword away from him and chakra stops swirling around it, causing it to reduce greatly in size, "I wasn't going to—"

"Yeah, you were," Suigetsu growls, "You were about to kill her. I know those eyes when I see them," he turns around as he materializes to his female and much younger teammate, "Are you okay?" When he says 'okay' he exaggerates the sentence, furrowing his brows, gesturing at her, and giving her a thumbs up and then a thumbs down before tilting his head.

She excitedly grins and gives him a thumbs up.

A woman from the edge of the clearing of the training grounds calls out to her and she waves as she runs over to her, away from her teammates. Once her grey pigtails are out of view, Chojūro glares hatefully at his teammate, "How could you even treat her like a child?"

"What does that mean?" Suigetsu asks darkly, "I have never understood why you don't like Aiko; she's a perfectly nice kid. Are you intimidated by the fact a six-year-old is on a team with us?" he puts his hands on his hips, "Didn't you hear sensei and Mizukage-sama talking once? She's a clan kid. Don't—"

"She can't even speak!" Chojūro exclaims angrily, "This is ridiculous! I'm being put on a team with an idiot. And by the looks of it, two idiots!"

"Hey," Suigetsu glares, "She might have been born mute. Don't judge her so harshly. I'm sure this is just a phase. She's just six. If you find her to be such a problem, why not see your own hypocrisy: you dislike a six-year-old yet you lower yourself to comparing yourself with someone half your age. If anything, you're being the ridiculous one here."

"Shut up," Chojūro hisses, "You know nothing. You understand—and can't possibly—understand a thing about me! That girl is an abomination! I _hope_ she dies in the Exams!"

 _This guy…!_ "Tch," Suigetsu's blood boils over as he slugs the other boy in the face.

* * *

"Just—"

He raises his arms to keep his face from burning off from the flames expanding from the exploding tag.

"Get out of here!"

His red eyes flash angrily, met with placidly calm red ones. "No."

"Itachi!" Shisui yells, "Listen to me!"

Shisui's attention is drawn from the lethal Kage to the disobedient Uchiha, "I'll put this bluntly then: you're going to get in my way. Have you forgotten? Your body has gotten a lot worse! For _our_ sake—"  
The Raikage comes. Itachi suppresses the urge to take a step back and readies his body to move as fast as what his eyes tell him. He begins to mold chakra, but a terrible surge of pain electrifies him and he drops to his knees, coughing blood. Shisui curses and kicks him—he has no time—out of the way and cries out in pain when the Raikage's lightning grazes him. He grabs Itachi and jumps back a far distance and examines the younger Uchiha with both concern and rage.

"What did I tell you?!" Shisui demands, "You—"

"I'm not Shirusu," Itachi warns, getting out of the man's grasp easily and glares, "I'm not a child."

That shuts Shisui up. He purses his lips and focuses on the angry Kage before him, "Itachi. I won't say this again," a four pointed star gazes at the teen, " _Go._ "

"Even with Susanō, without me you can't—"

"Leave!" Shisui snaps. He bites a thumb and slams his hand on the ground. A cloud of smoke dissipates and reveals a growling form clad in fur and pearly white teeth, "Take him far away from here."

"Yes, sir," its teeth gleam and it pounces on Itachi before disappearing with the sickly teen. Shisui glares angrily at the Kage, eager to take out his anger and frustration on the Kage. Green flames burst around him before a skeleton slowly is burned into view, of white structure with a tinge of green, "Come at me!"

* * *

"Monkey," her icy hand rests on his shoulder before her feet touch the ground, "We need to leave."

Monkey turns to look at her and inadvertently catches the eye of the man with hair as black as his own from earlier. The man gives him an eerie grin and his eyes, a dark color, seem to shine a sickly yellow and his skin gives off a pale sheen where the light bounces off of his face. Monkey stills, feeling an aura of death emanate from him. He wants nothing more than to look away, but freezes to the spot when the women from earlier descend upon him like angry hawks and the man strides over with his feet that don't seem to touch the ground.

"Hey, mister," a green-eyed woman bats her mascara-covered eyelashes at him and wraps her pearly white arms around him. She leans in close to him as another woman steps in between Kosari and Monkey, _"What did I tell you?"_

"Hey—"

 _whoosh._

Monkey's sentence comes to a shuddering halt when something whooshes past his ear. A moment later, his ear feels unspeakably warm and he slowly touches it with a finger.

Blood.

"My, my," the man stands a few feet away from them with his arms crossed. The green-eyed silver-haired women and men form a large circle around them, "I didn't expect Kuchinashi-chan's party to be crashed by such a handsome young man and his little niece and nephews," he tilts his head at them, "Or, to bring in such a lovely young lady. Was she your pass in?"

"Who are you?" Sasuke steps forward with a scowl.

The man winces in an exaggerated way. He frowns disapprovingly, sending chills up Sasuke's spine. The man's expression reminds him of his father's face, looking so glum and so disappointed he hadn't saved him from Itachi that night, "'Introduce yourself before asking the names of others', right?"

"I…I'm—"

"This is Tachibana Ryūji and his nephews and niece: Tachibana Iko, Hashi, and Shōsuke," Kosari cuts in.

"Kukai-sama wasn't talking to you—" a woman starts angrily, cocking back a fist.

"Setsuna."

A regal voice booms down and the air becomes still. Yet, Setsuna can't help herself and Kosari ends up meeting the floor. Monkey blinks in shock. _I didn't even see her punch._ A woman wearing a diamond encrusted blue dress walks over with an aura of regality reminiscent of an aristocracy in Kosari's eyes and watches as the woman is slapped across the face.

"Are you an idiot?" the regal woman asks quietly, her emerald green eyes burning with ire. Kosari studies the woman intently, unencumbered by the punch earlier. The woman, for some reason, is familiar to Sakumo's daughter. Her obsidian eyes scan the woman's body and from her position on the ground, she sees paper woven into the inside of her dress.

"N-no, Kuchinashi-sama," the woman trembles with fear. Kosari stands and looks at the emerald-eyed woman.

"Forgive my intrusion, but I can explain: Setsuna-san was talking to Ryūji-san and I had interrupted disgracefully; I had interrupted Ryūji-san's confession of affection for her," Kosari bows deeply.

"Is this true?" Kuchinashi glances from Kosari to Ryūji.

Monkey nods slightly, unspeakably horrified and confused. Setsuna stares at Kosari with her eyes wide.

"Kuchinashi-chan," the man grins, "Let's not go off on this useless tangent. We must still deal with these intruders, love confession or not."

Kuchinashi glares at the four without silver-hair, "Throw them out. I'll pardon this man's indecency by not informing Setsuna's fiancé of this," she looks at Kosari with a strange look; her glare instantly melting, "What's your name?"  
Kosari watches as Monkey and her Genin are quickly escorted out before answering, "It's…not that important, right?" Her ears ring with a fear she can't describe.

"What?" Kuchinashi demands, "Answer me!"

"If I told you," Kosari doesn't meet her eyes. She stares at her hands, "What would you do? Your party has been crashed and there isn't enough alcohol to keep people here. And, from the looks all your guests are giving me, I'm not welcome here."

"Damn straight," someone sneers, "Ugly scum like you aren't—"

Kuchinashi peers into Kosari's endless black abysses, "You're a Hatake, aren't you? This silver hair," she grasps a few strands with two fingers, "I haven't seen such pure silver hair in a long time," she leans in close to Kosari, " _This man is an outsider,"_ she tucks Kosari's hair behind her ear and dons her glare once more, "For a woman with silver hair, a color of hair that is superior to all the rest, to have interrupted my comrade's confession because you yourself have lowered yourself to feeling any sort of emotion for a black-haired devil, a man who dares crash _my_ party no less, is inexcusable. Regardless of your name, Hatake or not, I cannot let you remain here. Leave!"

Kosari doesn't need more motivation than that. Her heels quickly _click-click_ their way out, carrying her out and away and into the night's fresh air.

"We need to go," Kosari repeats once more, "I'll get our bags at the inn. You four go ahead."

* * *

"That idiot," Itachi mutters. His black eyes stare into amber ones and its fangs retreat into its maw.

"You don't look very tasty, but I suppose I'll settle with you because if Shisui-sama dies I'm blaming you," the beast's warning rumbles within its chest and its eyes narrow.

"But he just—" Itachi's eyes go wide in disbelief.

"I'm not talking about now," the beast growls, "I'm talking about later on. There may not be any beast bound to the earth that could help Shisui-sama, but there may be a beast that takes flight with the cunning to help."

"Do you think Raikage-sama is that strong?" Itachi glances over at twin amber orbs.

The beast shakes its head, three times as large as Itachi's, "Shisui-sama has his wits about him. He'll escape alive, at least. He knows, just as you and I do, that killing that Kage will only cause Konoha more problems. Kumo may know that both of you Uchiha are no longer affiliated with your village, but you better than most that your past is the one that gets you," then its hard amber eyes soften, "Just how are Sasuke and Shirusu? And, what was her name…?"

Itachi looks away, "Shirusu and his sister are…"

The beast takes a step back, "W-what?"

Itachi looks at his hands, "I managed to save Sasuke," he tries to hold back tears, "I'm sorry."

"Those kids…" the beast looks at its huge paws, "Shirusu always thought I was some pack mule, a beast of burden. Far from it, I'd scoff, but I'd sprint over the lake within your compound so long as Shisui-sama was watching anyway. The damn kid was fascinated by it. Shisui-sama often told me explicitly not to talk to the boy about his mother. But despite the fact I didn't even know what she looked like, much less her name—Shisui-sama was always so secretive when it came to females—the boy would always ramble on and on about the woman. It had gotten to the point that the brat's curiosity and desperation for that female had infected me. I began to imagine what the boy would imagine and, on days when Shisui-sama and his father were forced to work late at the Police Headquarters, I began to believe what the boy would say about that female in his sleep. The poor boy, always having nightmares and no mother to soothe him. He was only six, wasn't he?"

"Almost," Itachi says solemnly.

"Tell me: did Shisui-sama's mate die on a mission while the boy was a mere babe? Or, does her heart still beat? Although, it may be hard for it to if her kits are dead and her mate is a criminal. But, it's not like I care…"

Itachi just shakes his head, "I'm sorry."

* * *

With an arm she cuts into the puff of smoke after consolidating Team 7's bag and Monkey's and her own in a scroll. She'd already changed into more comfortable clothes after deciding that having a dress flutter in the wind was impractical. She hops out of the window and soars into the night.

Into the dense foliage is where she goes; sprinting across the thick limbs of the trees and taking flight over a grass-covered soil is how she goes. Under the full moon, her hair glows the same color as the moon. With an unusual urge to go faster, she complies and flies past the trees until everything simply blurs into a dark green and brown and black. The moon, however, doesn't lose its brightness and lights her way like a guiding hand.

The silver wings flap a few times, to slow, and she lands gracefully to where their chakra signatures are. They had stopped, presumably to wait for her. She almost smiles at that, but something makes her stop. The air is too still and it becomes too apparent that breathing is getting harder and harder. She takes a closer look at her Genin and they kneel, shaking with fear.

Monkey and Hound had always been around Danzō's aura of death and killing intent and murder, and, what they considered justice in its purest form, so the constricting air didn't have very much of an effect on the former and current ANBU.

Monkey hisses as something pierces his skin and Hound watches with cold calculation as more blood stains his clothes. Something whisks Monkey back and an Academy student could see what it is: wire.

Hound is alone.

But armed.

"How rude, Kosari-chan. My files aren't to be considered as some library, you know. You can't just borrow them with an IOU or something like that. They're mine," he smiles, "I'm sure it's hard to understand the whole concept, right? Being an ANBU, former or not, makes it hard to say 'mine' when all your weapons come from the same deposit as all the other ANBU. Even the previous Hound," a sickly grin shines out from the forest.

Hound wants nothing more than to shove his intestines down his throat and pierce a kunai through his heart, but Kosari feels the urge to vomit and just obliterate him.

"You're not fooling anyone, Kosari-chan," he runs a hand through his black locks, "It's obvious you've hardly come to terms with being the last Hatake. Look at you: you're a mess. Just _who_ was the target for this mission, hm? Me? Or Kuchinashi-chan? Or, have you, in your haste to get rid of these Genin and to scurry back into ANBU, simply given up? Well, you can tell Sarutobi-sensei that his client is less than happy," he casts a few paper bills at her.

"Have you not killed yourself yet because you've been jealous of Kakashi-kun all your life and can only bask in the fact you can claim the title of the 'Last Hatake'? He was the apple of your parents' eyes and the heartthrob of Konoha and grudgingly respected across the globe while you stayed in the shadows and faced only cold death and hate as you ended countless lives. Shouldn't you have been used to that, though? Remember the War, when—"

"Shut up!" Kosari yells. Her body shakes as the skies rumble above her.

"Fine, the War must be some soft spot for you," he tilts his head, "What about the night of the Uchiha Massacre? You're a plague to Konoha with your cowardice and—"

 _Rain._

"—are destined to be destroyed by Konoha. Staying there will only hasten your death, faster than how Kakashi-kun died. However, I'll tell you something: Sarutobi-sensei is planning to use you to kill Danzō. I'm quite sure he doesn't like the fact Danzō oversees a large ANBU population, along with his ROOT members that he has no intention of hiding from Sarutobi-sensei. Danzō is trying to undermine his authority and become Hokage, which Sarutobi-sensei intends to prevent. Sarutobi-sensei clearly places too much trust in a fickle girl like you and hopes to manipulate you into doing his bidding. He's never been one to dirty his hands. Just think of your family and the War: Sarutobi-sensei certainly never was farther than a mile from his office while you and I and Kakashi-kun killed under 'orders'."

"Don't compare yourself to me," Kosari says, "And, I hate listening to liars."

Leaves bounce with raindrops that quickly pour down. Kosari looks at her Genin barely able to breathe under the Sannin's icy glare. Without a single seal, lightning bursts around her. The roar of the rain seems louder in the absence of the crackling of lightning. Within moments, Kosari directs her chakra towards the Sannin and condenses it into a point at the end that zips through the air and cuts his skin after he shimmers away to dodge.

"I'm your ally," Orochimaru grins, "I wasn't the one that tried to kill you or tie you to a bloodthirsty village. And, nor do I want you dead. In fact, the very opposite."

Hound wordlessly flicks with her wrist explosives at him and watches as he chuckles, "In rain?"

The wind howls and the rain goes sideways. His hair stands on end as he dodges her lightning. In a flash of brilliance from the heavens, his body sizzles. He promptly vomits out another copy of himself before vanishing into thin air. Kosari pulls back her lightning and looks at her hands that shake. She looks up as Monkey frees himself from the wire and jumps into the trees, more than eager to return home.

* * *

"This is a bad idea."

He glares at his 'friend'.

His friend groans, but no one can hear that.

"You'll get confined to truly only your training grounds! I happen, as you may or may not have noticed, enjoy seeing other humans than you from time to time! For being stuck with you forever, don't I deserve some sort of respect?"

"…"

After roaming around a small town for a while, the jinchūriki finally settles down at a seedy inn.

Inside, the ox laments once more, "Bee, you should return to Kumo after this. I don't want any repercussions. Just because the Raikage is out doesn't mean you can suddenly roam the world."

"Shut it, fool. To be caught, I'm too cool," Bee grins.

"Well, enjoy your freedom now. Just don't venture too far. I have a bad feeling about all this."

Bee just smiles.


	12. Chapter 12

One man bends down and picks up a stone. He tosses it a few times in his hand and runs a hand through his colorless hair. He looks down at the stone and allows the breeze to waft through his colorless hair before he combs some of it back with his free hand.

 _Behind; male._

He chucks the stone behind him, "Don't—"

"It's just me," the stone-catcher smiles as he tucks a strand of similarly colorless hair behind his ear, "Long time no see."

"Couldn't you have changed?" the stone-chucker scowls at the Kiri garb, "That blue is just awful."

"The same could be said about you. What's with those uneven sleeves? Have you forgotten symmetry?" the stone-catcher replies smoothly.

The stone-chucker looks out at the sky that's about to break for dawn. The stone-catcher sends a pulse of chakra through the stone and it crumbles to dust. He lets the wind take away the dust as he surveys the sea of graves before him. _So this was the result, was it?_ He smiles smugly. _As I thought._

"Do you believe what Tou-san said?" the stone-chucker asks softly.

"To an extent," the stone-catcher puts a hand in his pocket, "To a very, very limited extent."

"Why? Tou-san hasn't even caught on to us. He knows nothing," the stone-chucker raises a brow, "Besides, he'll be dead before he finds out. Even if he does find out, it's no skin off our backs," he shrugs, "Either way, we won't be the ones to kill him, ne?"

"While that may be true," the stone-catcher purses his lips, "I can't say there won't be complications. That Kumo boy makes my skin crawl."

"What about that Kumo boy?" the stone-chucker asks.

"Kami, you're a curious one today," the stone-catcher exclaims.

"Just answer it!" the stone-chucker glares at him, "The Sharingan?"

"Of course I'll answer you. Later," the stone-catcher smiles, "But, do be careful. Spies are everywhere. That Hokage isn't too bright, but if we don't watch our steps, I'm afraid we'll have to cut our visit short."

The stone-chucker grins, "Yeah. Now—"

"—we should—"

"Look for that girl," the two say in unison.

* * *

Desperately, she wants to believe that it wasn't true.

Kosari runs a hand through her hair and a few strands sweep into her vision. She blows a few wisps back, only for them to tickle her cheek.

Nohara Rin is the spy.

 _Highly likely_ , Kosari reminds herself. Hound takes a long sip of sake and glances down at the files spread out before her. It had taken half of the night to deactivate the majority of the files. She narrows her eyes at the pile she'd made regarding all of their experiments. Orochimaru and Rin's, that is.

In the beginning, the experiments were nothing that she found odd for two medical shinobi to go through: healing wounds and organ transplants of varying degrees of severity. Some were simply healing small cuts and others were replacing hearts and kidneys. Kosari found nothing terribly incriminating besides the fact both of them were mentioned doing experiments with one another and handwritten notes—a crosscheck of handwriting samples is definitely imperative—were prevalent throughout the files.

As Kosari continued on through the detailed experiments, Hound became increasingly irritated. Kosari kept Hound back from appearing at Rin's home and interrogating her right then and there as she read the experiments that became more nauseating: sets of twins were experimented on, blood transfusions of different blood types were analyzed, and various thresholds for pain were examined. Orochimaru expressed his interest in using children and once or twice, he mentioned 'Uchiha'. _I don't think I was ever happy that only Sasuke is alive, but it certainly makes our job much easier. Yet…_ A few experiments, if dated correctly, were recent and focused on poisons, stab wounds, and heart failure and heart revival. Hound was almost out the window when Kosari noted that there was never any mention of anesthetics. In Hound's hand, the sake cup shattered. Blood dripped down, but Kosari was too shocked and horrified by a few of the notes, the most recent ones. She used her other hand to shift the papers a bit and looked at the experiment it mentioned.

As much as Kosari was adverse to Orochimaru, he did have a point: none of them wanted to fight in the Hokage's war. The mere thought of the War brought back a sea of bloodshed that she was eager to forget.

"But…" Kosari stands from her chair as the moon shines brilliantly from her window, "That War may have been just the first wave."

Kosari holds her head in agony as she grits her teeth, "I…I didn't kill them for this…"

' _Soul Transfer'_ was the experiment. All of the experiments had one or two labels: a blue one for 'Success' and a red one for 'Failure'.

"Kaa-san…" Kosari whispers and clasps her hands together in a prayer.

Marked in blue, the experiment stared back up at her.

"Please help me."

The note read: ' _Five weeks prior to the Chūnin Exams, make the final preparations for the Patient N to be in peak condition, ready to fight. –Orochimaru'_

* * *

Rin jogs lightly with a calm expression as the moon lights her way from her home in a spaced out residential district towards Konoha's most important sector. On most maps available to Chūnin and above, this sector was the first sector built for infrastructural purposes and denoted as 'Sector 1'. Within this sector are the hospital, Hokage tower, T&I, Weaponry Division, and the ANBU barracks. The Hokage tower holds not only the Hokage's office, but several other offices that span half or the entire floor, including Shinobi Records, Finance, Foreign Affairs, among others. The basement of each building within Sector 1 requires at least a rank of Jōnin and the deeper it gets the fewer that can access it until the Hokage can count on one hand the people who have access.

Knowing this, Kosari can't help but think that Orochimaru must've somehow gotten even stronger to slip through Sector 1 for over a year. The ANBU she'd trained remained in Black Ops, but law required at least twenty members to stay within the village for security purposes. There was no way they could've overlooked something as serious as this. Yet, Hound's skin crawls with the terrible notion that Orochimaru must've not only infiltrated the village by himself and Rin letting him into the hospital, but the Border Division too must be infected with spies. Kosari bites her tongue from glancing over where the entrance (one of many) to the ANBU Black Ops barracks. She has no desire to entertain Orochimaru's doubtful and poisonous conjectures, but she can't help but wonder about Danzō. Being his top agent for years after breaking her back and constantly cutting away at her own heart, she'd come to know what was under his arm. Or rather, what was on it.

Ever since he was a Jōnin, he'd said, he'd come up with hundreds of ways to sacrifice his soul, heart, and body for the village. His wife and son were the only things he'd wanted nothing more than to put in a chest and set sail, far away so he wouldn't be tempted to sell them to the village and break his heart. The idea of putting eyes in his arm hadn't occurred to him until his son had been playing with a bomb as an Academy student and managed to ignite it and watched with a mixture of fascination and wonder as the tag quickly began to fizzle away. Danzō had nearly lost his son that day and never regretted the deep well of a scar on his hand. It had given him the idea to do implant eyes. Hound was mildly unconvinced regarding the unlikely reason, but said nothing. First was the Byakugan. He'd managed to falsify the death of a Hyūga disenchanted with her life in Konoha, not an uncommon story from the rich, and took one of her eyes after sending her away on a mission.

Rin enters the hospital and her heels click-click-click on the marble floors, unaware of the Hatake trailing her as she winds down the maze of a hospital, lagging by one corner without a single trace of chakra to speak of.

Panic soon set into the girl's heart and she began to fight back, angrily screaming to Danzō that he couldn't understand her devotion to the village and how dare he try to kill her for her eyes. A selfish man, she accused. Hardly, he replied, for he was simply going to use her to protect the village. She was going to even 'see' him protect the village and the people he was going to cut down to keep Konoha safe. She didn't understand. In her rage, she left behind a crater where only poisonous plants grow. Danzō had been unaware that another had set his eyes on the girl and was taken by surprise when another had stolen her body just as he was about to take her second eye. Two days later, Hound was dispatched to deal with a group of Kiri shinobi, one of whom was being pursued by a group sent out by the Hokage. It was a clash of ANBU and ANBU Black Ops. The shinobi leading the ANBU was none other than Uchiha Shisui and the lead ANBU in that group was Hatake Kakashi. Hound simply had Monkey with her.

Rin takes out a key and unlocks the door. Around the end of the hallway are walls that are yellowing and a few other doors marked with the same 'Lab' marker. The lock shakes as she struggles to open it before finally getting it open. Kosari quickly weaves a seamless genjutsu around her to keep the door open. She convinces Rin that the door is already closed and slips down. Between the rungs of the first few steps, Kosari looks as Rin scurries down the steps and reaches a lab whose walls are lined with cabinets and counters and endless amounts of paper. Rin moves a few things over and holds several slips of paper in her hands. She places each down on the floor equidistant of one another, bites her thumbs, and goes through about fifty seals. _Fūinjutsu, huh?_ Then, Rin slams her hands down and a bright green light glows. From the light, it becomes clear that there's an engraving on the ground especially for that one seal. The light fades as something materializes before Rin. In the darkness, only so much chakra can help her eyes see better, but it's enough to see the outline of a stretcher. She can't see the face of the body, but Rin checks the body from head to toe and after a few moments, it becomes crystal clear to Kosari that the body is male and several chakra suppressors and bindings restrain him

"Right…Orochimaru-sama said he needed three vials of blood," Rin checks a few papers before nodding to herself. She pulls out three vials, a needle, an alcohol swab, a strip of elastic, and puts on gloves. She swabs an arm and begins drawing blood.

The needle suddenly shatters along with a several sickening snaps and Rin's surprised gasp and then a sigh of pain. Rin is thrust into a chair and wheezes as she looks up at two figures.

"Who…?"

"You need not know our names, miss," Kosari can hear the smile in the man's voice, "Just…give us the body."

"You know…?" Rin's eyes widen, "H-how?"

"Come now, miss," another voice chimes, "Orochimaru isn't a very good friend of ours. After watching you a little, it's easy to see you're his lapdog. We're not interested in you in the slightest, so killing you isn't in our forecast."

"What is, however," a man continues, "Is that you give us the body."

"And why should I do that with cowards who can't even muster up the courage to show your faces?" Rin demands.

"It's not that," he grins, "We didn't bother trying to find the light switch. Please, miss. Don't change the—"  
Rin gasps as another bone in her body breaks.

"—subject. We'll talk civilly. Give us the body."

"Why?" Rin grits out.

"To be blunt: a dear friend of yours will suffer. What was his name…?" he thinks aloud.

"Ah!" the other says.

"What? Who?" he eagerly leans towards him.

"Hatake Kakashi!"

Kosari's heart sinks as Hound growls under the surface.

"You wouldn't want Konoha's safety, countless lives, to be jeopardized, do you? Hatake Kakashi, the gem of Konoha, is our weapon of choice. His name alone is enough to bring down Konoha's walls and turn you all against one another. War is quick to ignite, especially since Iwa and Kumo are only participating to gather intel and strike on Konoha. If Konoha is weak and rumors fly wildly about, then I'm afraid Konoha may as well be ashes now. You hold Konoha's future in your hands. Giving us the body will keep Konoha safe, and not giving the body will destroy it. Maybe not now, maybe not even after the Exams, but in the future."

"That's…that's not possible!" Rin cries out.

"Why not? Don't tell me you bought the story that Kakashi is dead," the man laughs, "That boy isn't dead, not yet anyway. But, he'll be hard to find. Right?"

"Yeah," the other replies in agreement, "I still haven't any intel on him since he just disappeared."

"Kakashi…" Rin mutters as tears roll down her face.

"Don't cry, miss," he wipes away her tear, "For there's something else that you could cry about."  
"A rebellion is coming, miss," he cups her chin gently.

"Rebellion?" Rin parrots, "What are you talking about?"

 _Rebellion? I've never heard of any rebellion._ Kosari narrows her eyes.

"So Tou-san has kept quiet," he looks at the other.

"That's good," the other replies as he turns to Rin, "You haven't heard of it yet, but I assure you that you will soon."

"I'll reiterate: Rin, we won't kill you if you don't give us the body. However, not giving us the body will cause not only Hatake Kakashi and his name to suffer, but also everyone around you. Spies from all over the world are currently lurking within Konoha, waiting for the Chūnin Exams to begin. Konoha will be weakened due to a stretched-thin security. I'd advise, in the name of peace and innocent lives, to give us the body. Dangerous sparks and skirmishes are sure to fly as Konoha's strength is tested in this next month. Most of the participants are already here early to get a feel of the village," he slips his hands in his pockets.

"And, I wouldn't be surprised if a few are already within this hospital," he smiles.

"Now, do you wish to incite war on your village, or do you want to keep Konoha safe and time to draw back her troops to ride out the rebellion's fiery wave? We'd even let you keep working as a researcher."

Rin stares, shocked they'd be so bold as to speak of war, something that was avoided narrowly by Shisui and his ANBU only a little while after the Yondaime Hokage died. She remembered vaguely treating Kakashi for some odd wounds, but never thought much about it. _Him and Shisui seemed to 'mess around' for 'practice' a lot so…_

And, to think that these men, strong and skilled enough to get into her lab and have already known about her connection to Orochimaru and even the identity of the body… Rin bites her lip. It's obvious these men aren't bluffing. If they were, they wouldn't have been able to get down here and take her by surprise. She'd had her guard up and knew no one was following her and there hadn't been any genjutsu cast on her from the moment she slammed her hands down and took the body from the sealing matrix. _These men…they_ could _kill me. I wouldn't be surprised if they did. But…why not just kill me or knock me out and take the body themselves?_

"Miss, please make your decision," he reminds her.

"Why not just…knock me out?" Rin furrows her brows, "I don't understand. Why not just take the body now?"  
He shakes his head, "I'm the one—"  
Rin's hearing nearly fades away into a painful ringing. Her sense of gravity and balance goes flying out the window as her body quivers on the ground. She shakes with pain and feels her head. Something warm and slightly thick oozes out and she bites back a cry.

"—asking the questions."  
"Answer him," he steps on her stomach and she can't even flail in pain; her limbs were all broken.

"N-never," Rin spits, "Never!"

"Very well, suit yourself," he sighs, "We'll make sure you go in the textbooks as the woman who started the Fourth Great Shinobi War."

* * *

 _This village sure is big._

Her grey pigtails, gleaming like a knight in shining silver armor in the sunlight, bounce with every skip of her step and lighten the hearts of all who see her smile, adorned by pink ribbons and a light pink frilly dress and leather magenta shoes. Despite the few civilians milling about at this early hour, everyone notices the girl and smile back.

As she skips through the streets of the village with so much greenery and life and sunshine, the scent of sugar fills the air. She stops to close her eyes and breathe it in. She peers intently around, looking for the source. She turns round and round until she spots a shop with pictures of pastries and pies and cakes. She skips over and presses her face against the glass. Her wide, curious eyes take in all the sights and scenes of the various cookies and display cases holding them for all to see.

She flinches when a weathered old hand rests on her shoulder and he points inside. She pouts as she digs in her pockets and holds out only a few ryo and a blue button she'd found earlier. He laughs, but no sound comes out. She tilts her head at that, but is quickly distracted by the growl of her stomach. He pats her head and opens the door. A bell chimes softly and—

"Welcome!" an even older man greets.

The old man smiles down at the girl and a drop of sweat rolls down his face as she once again presses her face and hands against the glass and goes across like a wiper, cleaning the glass as she scans each sweet treat. He sighs contentedly, having not seen such a young and innocent child in a long time. _Reminds me of—_

The bell chimes—

"Welcome!" the old man gives a wrinkled smile when a young woman walks in.

"I'd like an espresso, with ten shots," she says.

"Coming right up!"

Kosari kneels to the girl's height and deftly undoes the ribbons holding the girl's hair unevenly back and reties it evenly and beautifully, even plaiting a few parts. The girl examines herself in her reflection on the glass and pats the new ribbon loops, several more than she'd been able to incorporate, with apprehension. Kosari furrows her brows and opens her mouth to ask what's wrong, but then the girl squeals in delight and hugs Kosari tightly. She freezes in horror, but then rigidly returns the embrace. The girl jumps back to examining the cookies with unprecedented enthusiasm.

'Never thought I'd bump into you, Uchiha-sama, Kosari signs quietly, 'Who is she?'

'Just a child admiring the sweets,' Kagami replies.

'I'll pay,' Kosari signs suddenly.

'No, it's fine I'll—'

The girl suddenly whirls around and points excitedly to a few cookies.

"I'll pay for them as well, sir," Kosari picks up her espresso and looks at the girl and the cookies she was pointing to, "In addition to this espresso, I'd like to get ten of these bird-shaped cookies and…" she turns to Kagami, "Is there anything you'd like?"

He shakes his head.

"That's all," Kosari turns to the man as Kagami takes a seat as the man bags the ten cookies. He hands it to the woman, who hands it to the girl. She skips over to the table and clambers onto the chair and begins happily munching away at the birds.

She hands over more than enough money and the man sighs as he counts her change, "I might be getting old, but I don't recall a child nearly as cute as her. Shisui used to bring his cute little son here all the time," he hands Kosari his change, not noticing the iciness of her look, "That boy always got the same bird cookies as that girl over there. It's such a shame that he's not around anymore. I would've given him a free cookie. But you know, I'd always wondered about that boy's mother. Shisui was handsome, but the boy must've resembled his mother. She must've been quite the catch," he chuckles lightly to himself.

Kosari pours in some cream in her espresso and leans in close to him so that no one else could hear but him, " _I'd advise you to be a little more considerate as to whom you're talking around, namely Uchiha Kagami-sama behind me, the grandfather of the boy who was murdered by his own father, Kagami-sama's son. I don't think I'll ever be buying from such an inconsiderate piece of scum like you again. If I hear you going on about an S-Ranked criminal so freely again, I'll have you turned over to the T &I before you can even blink for possible treason."_

"I-I'm so sorry…I d-didn't notice…" he trembles.

"I'm sure you didn't," Kosari says kindly, "Thank you for this espresso by the way," she smiles as if she hadn't just threatened him. She takes a sip, "It's delicious."

The man shakes with fear and watches as Kosari takes a seat next to the girl and sips her espresso. _Convincing Nohara-san with a genjutsu that the men had thrown her up into the entrance of the hospital wasn't easy and certainly left me rather drained. But, I had to. Leaving such an important kunoichi wounded like that wasn't an option if I plan on watching her._

* * *

"Aiko!"

"Aiko!"

" _Aiko!"_

He cups his hands once more and hollers out, " _AIKO!"_

He continues to run through the streets and his eyes scan every child, looking for her. He turns on a heel and goes blindly down another street. He runs past vendors and shops and peers into a group of children standing outside a candy shop and his head turns left and right as he desperately searches.

"Aiko!"

Suigetsu mentally curses Chojūro, who had refused to help out whatsoever in anything regarding Aiko, stupidly overlooking the fact that they needed her to even compete. If he wanted to get away so badly, didn't he understand that he needed to work with her in the Exams and get to the Finals where he could shine on his own and possibly move up a rank and get away from her? _It's Chojūro who's six, not Aiko!_

Still, that statement did nothing to help him find the elusive girl. It was as if she'd flew out the window and disappeared into a completely unfamiliar village.

He stops to catch his breath and looks up to continue his endless search. In that moment, something blurs past him and something trips him. He falls on his face and growls. _What the…?_

He sits up and turns to see Aiko with tears in her eyes, looking guiltily at a Jōnin, who kneels at eye level with the girl. She hands back a hitai-ate to the woman. The woman holds up a single finger in a disciplinary way and Aiko nods as the woman continues her speech. Suigetsu listens in on their conversation and blinks in surprise and confusion. _I can't understand a single word…_

The woman says something else and Aiko replies with her eyes downcast. The woman's stern look fades to a serene smile and she uses two slender thumbs to wipe away the girl's tears. She says something else quietly and then smiles again, "Ne?"

Aiko nods slowly and the woman pats her head.

"Y-you…" Suigetsu blinks in shock.

"Yes?" Kosari looks at him and then at Aiko, "Is she your teammate?"

"She can speak?!" Suigetsu exclaims, pointing at Aiko.

"Yes," Kosari says slowly, "Of course. She isn't deaf or mute, you know."

"How…" Suigetsu glances over at Aiko, who hides behind the woman's leg and grips onto her pant leg and looks up at him with seriousness.

"Do you know her?" Kosari asks.

"Yeah, she's my teammate," Suigetsu says, "We're from Kirigakure. I woke up this morning and she was gone. I've been looking for her all morning."

"Where's the rest of your team?" Kosari arches a brow, "I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but if a foreign shinobi goes missing, you don't go running around the village. You're to go directly to the Hokage or report it to any Chūnin or Jōnin you see."

"My teammate, the selfish bastard, didn't want to help look for her, and my sensei said he was going to be busy for the entire morning at some Jōnin sensei meeting with the Hokage," Suigetsu sighs.

"Meeting?" Kosari blinks. _Oh Kami…_

"Yeah, sensei said all sensei were required to attend," Suigetsu says, "More importantly, what dialect was that? I've never heard of anyone speaking anything else than what we're speaking. It sounded like some kind of code," Suigetsu frowns.

Aiko smiles slyly when Kosari suddenly flickers away.

 _This village sure is nice._

* * *

Nara Shikaku leans back against the wall before glancing over at the Hokage. Hiruzen blows out a few smoke rings before sighing, and for a moment, Shikaku was afraid the old man would die on him. Then, he looks back at the clipboard in his hand and shakes his head. _They're practically the same person…so late…_

Next to Hiruzen, an ANBU inclines his head slightly, "Shall I search for her, Hokage-sama?"

The doors suddenly burst open to reveal a female clad in Konoha's forest-green Jōnin vest. She doesn't break a sweat and Hiruzen almost smiles at the memory of Kakashi as a young boy, trying to always look like everything were effortless. He supposes that may not have been innate, but a learned behavior from the woman standing in the doorway.

"Attention!" Hiruzen calls over the buzz of chatter. With that one word of authority and the power held within it, the Jōnin line up in a block with Konoha shinobi in one area and other villages making up the other half of the group standing before the old Kage with his arms behind his back.

"I would like to express my gratitude that all villages are competing. Thank you for making the long journey to come here. I do hope your accommodations are most fitting. If not, we will do everything we can to find you more adequate arrangements," Hiruzen begins as he looks left and right at the faces of his shinobi and can't help but feel some sort of odd pride. Like a swan with white feathers, he puffs out his chest proudly. _Thank Kami Danzō isn't here._

"Many of you may see familiar faces from previous Exams. However, after looking around for a while, you may spot a larger number of Jōnin who respectively lead teams without any prior experience in the Chūnin Exams. As a result, this year is sure to be very exciting," Hiruzen says, "Nara Shikaku, leader of the Jōnin Corps, will now, for your benefit, read off the names of Jōnin both domestic and foreign, who lead teams of fresh Genin."  
"Yes, sir," Shikaku says as he looks at the clipboard in his hands, "Starting with Kumo, there are two teams: Team C and Team Darui."

C raises his head with pride, "I am C. I lead Tsuji, Toyo, and Korohi."

Beside him, Darui shifts his slouch slightly, "I'm Darui, leading Kuya, Kyoka, and Haruki."

Kosari looks over at her fellow Jōnin leading other fresh Genin, "You three can go first," she says quietly.

"Sure," Kurenai says, "But, why?"

"I'm not very good at public speaking," the ANBU smiles, "Please, I insist."

As the introductions continue, Kurenai opens her mouth to protest, but Gai stops her with a serious look. Kurenai gives Kosari one last look of apprehension before sighing. Gai nods to Kosari for some reason, but she hardly notices, lost in her own thoughts.

Hound was incredibly perplexed when the leader of the group of the simple ANBU members jumped down and glared harshly with his red eyes. She showed no signs of it as she knelt by the eviscerated body, covered in blood and flesh, searching for anything else incriminating and belonging to Konoha. The stolen eye of a Hyūga was more than enough. As he neared, Hound stood without fear.

"That was _our_ ," he gestured to his group of ANBU, who'd jumped down to glower over her, all five inches of rage, "Target," he grabbed the front of her vest, "How dare you not only apprehend our target, but rip him literally into shreds! Our mission was to bring him back for questioning!"

A few paces away was Monkey, who was checking the other obliterated bodies for anything of value, looks up and emanates a wave of concentrated killer intent upon the Uchiha gripping Hound's vest. Before he can move, Shisui pulled back his fist in a fist full of hurt pride. Monkey's eyes barely process the movements of the man touted Shunshin no Shisui.

One ANBU actually gasped when the ANBU Black Ops agent in Shisui's grasp disappeared in a flash of silver-ish light and reappeared next to the other ANBU Black Ops agent in the monkey mask. His silver hair glints in the sunlight.

"Taichō," Monkey glanced at Hound, who strained to remain standing in perfect form.

'Silence,' Hound ordered. She looked up at the ANBU in the trees and then at the Uchiha. After seeing her stunt, Shisui bristled with anger. She signs 'Let's go' to Monkey and disappeared into the trees.

"Hey!" Shisui yelled after her and quickly took to the trees. He jumped from branch to branch before he laid his eyes on Hound and teleported next to her. Monkey's eyes widened but before he could utter a single sound, Shisui tackled her and wound wire around her, keeping her restrained against the tree. She made no move to struggle, having no interest in straining to show how well Shisui restrained her. Shisui noted her lack of movements and supposed that beyond pride, she didn't have enough chakra to do much after that shunshin-like stunt earlier.

"Taichō!" Monkey said.

' _Silence_ ,' Hound ordered, her eyes slid over to him in irritation, 'There appears to be something that Uchiha-san would like to say. If he does anything, I can take care of it myself.'

Shisui crossed his arms with one hand gripping the wire tightly. His red eyes fade to black, but the scowl on his face deepened. The other ANBU assembled around in the surrounding branches. The shorter, silver-haired ANBU jumped in between Shisui and Hound, "Shisui-taichō," his obsidian eye glared fiercely, "Leave her alone," he turns and reaches out with a kunai to cut the wire.

It was then that Hound's irritation shifted from Monkey to the ANBU, "How can you call yourself an ANBU?"

"What?" the ANBU stopped in his tracks, "What does that mean?" he narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but couldn't bring himself to get angry with her.

"You are unfit for ANBU duty," Hound stated formally, "Due to the fact you have no respect for another ANBU, of a superior rank no less. You must have total trust in your fellow ANBU. Yet, you doubt that I could get out of these wires and further doubt that Uchiha-san wouldn't kill me. What could Uchiha-san gain from this, killing me? Nothing."

"—ri."

"Kos…"

"Kosari," Kurenai shakes her again. "Kosari."

"You okay?" Asuma glances over at her. Kosari blinks, "What?"

" _Kosari_ ," Shikaku calls out, "You're last. Go on."

"H-hai," Kosari mutters, "My name is Kosari. I lead Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Hyūga Hinata."

The room full of Jōnin shifts with surprise and apprehension. Kosari stares at a point on the ceiling, bored. _I suppose the Hokage wants the teams to be pitted more firmly against one another to provide more entertainment, seeing how there are less teams than usual this year. Danzō-sama would've just let things happen without unnecessarily preempting any fighting._

She sighs. _I can almost hear all the fighting among the Genin already._

* * *

"Hey!" Sasuke calls out, unspeakably annoyed, "What do you think you're doing here?!" _And burning incense?_

A young boy, around ten or eleven, stands before a house.

Sasuke scowls. _Kumogakure. He's a little young to be a Genin already._

He stuffs his hands in his pockets and turns around slowly, full of attitude and arrogance. Sasuke bristles with rage and strides towards the boy. The boy's reply stops Sasuke dead in his tracks, "Lots of people were killed six years ago. I'm just paying my respects. I certainly didn't see you light any incense for anyone. And yet, you wear that Uchiha crest proudly," he narrows his eyes at Sasuke, "What a joke."

Flames come rushing at the boy and burn even hotter than usual. Sasuke smirks as he feels the heat and relishes in scorching the hell out of the trespasser. No one entered the Uchiha compound without some sort of business with Kagami-ojīsan, who isn't even in the compound.

And, Sasuke knows for a fact the boy had no business with him. It was _his_ compound and _his_ alone.

"Good job," a voice calls out behind him.

Sasuke turns, his eyes wide.

"That is," he smirks as he flicks off a few flakes of ash, "If you want to waste chakra."

Sasuke balls his fists and his glare turns icy, "Why are you here?"

The boy falters for a moment, "I…"

Sasuke waits with thinning patience, analyzing the boy carefully. The boy hadn't set off the barrier around the compound. Sasuke knows next to nothing about the barrier, but it's obvious the boy here knew more about seals than he does if he was able to hide his presence from the barrier's detection. The Kumogakure hitai-ate on his forehead gleams in the sun above his wide smirk.

"Because I have a proposition," the boy says.

"Oh?" Sasuke almost rolls his eyes.

"Don't make that face," the boy growls, his obsidian eyes narrowing, "Let's sit at the dock."

"How do you know there's a dock here?" Sasuke demands.

"I've been walking around this compound for about an hour," the boy says, a little exasperated, "Really, it's in your best interest to hear me out."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sasuke demands, grasping the boy's shirt in his hand. The boy stares defiantly back. _If someone like me can walk in and for him not to notice me, then he's a goner in the Exams._ Sasuke stares into the boy's face, gritting his teeth, and then suddenly lets go of him. The boy shoots him a dark look before leading the way as he brushes off his shirt. Sasuke's hand shakes as he stares at the boy.

"Hey," the boy is about to turn a corner, "Hurry up."

Sasuke follows him, not necessarily because he wants to hear this proposal, but because he doesn't trust the boy even the slightest bit. The boy had snuck into the compound and needs supervision, mainly to make sure he doesn't do anything beyond staring at houses and lighting incense. The boy stands near the edge of the dock and his eyes cloud with his thoughts for a moment, in another world.

"What's this proposal?" Sasuke snaps his fingers in front of his face.

The boy sits and his feet dangle just over the surface of the water. He stares into his reflection and sees something he doesn't like. He squares his jaw and burns away his tears, "I don't know about all of the teams, but I have information that you would find useful. It's on nearly all of the rookie Genin teams, the nine of them. I'm a little lacking on Konoha shinobi, but the one team from Iwa, two from Kumo, one from Kiri, and one from Suna I do have information on. Since you don't trust people very easily, like me, you should know that in Kumo all Genin are given information on both notable shinobi from other countries and, if the Genin are competing in upcoming Chūnin Exams, on other Genin."

Sasuke snorts, "Some village if you can't even get anything on Konoha shinobi."

To Sasuke's surprise, the jab to the boy's village doesn't elicit any sort of response. _Doesn't he even like his village?_ Sasuke pushes the thought away, "And? What do you want in return?"

"An alliance," the boy says seriously.

Sasuke almost rolls his eyes, having halfway expected him to say that. The boy wordlessly takes out a scroll after having sensed Sasuke's skepticism. He bites his thumb and blood brightly bleeds out. He opens the scroll with his other hand and on what looked like the only matrix; he uses his blood as ink to write out the character for 'to remember'. The matrix carries out the order faster than Sasuke could comprehend and five different matrixes appear first. Sasuke sees something that looked like it could've been a matrix for a jutsu scroll peeking out from the rolled-up part of the scroll, but the boy deftly rolls over it, showing only the five matrixes.

"This better be good," Sasuke mutters.

The boy looks at him, "Which village's Genin do you want to see first?"

Sasuke looks at the matrixes, marked with 'Tsuchi', 'Mizu', 'Kumo', 'Suna' and 'Konoha'. He points to the Konoha one.

"Interested in what I know, huh?" the boy muses before unsealing several files. He hands Sasuke his own file, "Really, it's not much."

Sasuke scans the paper, mildly surprised, "This only has my picture, birthday, rank, teammates, and number of missions completed. There's nothing on my skillset," Sasuke hands it back to him, "If all the other files are like this, I'm not working with you."

"Then," the boy hands him two files, one on Suna's team and one on one of Kumo's team, "Read these."

Sasuke reluctantly takes them and barely reads them, skimming over it. Something catches his eye and he rereads it before the color drains from his face. He rereads the papers for several minutes before looking up at the boy with suspicion, "How do I know _this_ isn't all lies?"

The boy opens his mouth to respond, understanding Sasuke's reluctance to even join, but someone beats him to it.

"Well, what do we have here?" an older boy with a similar Kumo hita-ate waltzes up with a grin, "Oh, it's the famed _last Uchiha_ ," his voice drips with sarcasm at the last two words, "I might just have to teach you a lesson for this."

"You're…" Sasuke says. He looks at the younger boy, "You may just have a deal."

"Planning behind my back?" the boy with hair tipped with a whitish silver color crosses his arms, "Sensei might just kill you for this, you know. Come back to the hotel room now and I won't tell anyone what treachery I saw here."

Sasuke defensively in front of the boy as he rolls up his scroll, "What a fool you must be, assuming ill of your own fellow Kumo shinobi. What if he came back with information on my team and I? Would you still raise your hand against him then? Fighting is prohibited before the Exams and this would cost you and your team's chance at competing. And here I thought that Kumo shinobi had some sense about them, but I guess I'm wrong; they're all weak idiots!" _Come on, show me those eyes.  
_  
The boy snarls, "Like you're one to talk! I'm stronger than you, or anyone else!" the boy strides over to him and attempts to grab Sasuke's Uchiha-style collar, but Sasuke sidesteps and backflips onto the surface of the water. He watches the boy with mild amusement after observing hesitation on his face, "What, scared of a little water?"

Something snaps within the boy and in his reckless rage, his eyes turn from a black that shines a deep green to a blood red with a single tomoe. Sasuke smirks to himself, "I see." _Got you._

"Haruki, don't engage him. You'll lose face and disgrace our village," the boy hisses to his fellow Kumo shinobi, "We have another month to watch him. Don't be so hasty."

"Like a brat can tell me what to do," Haruki snaps, "Because of you, no one likes me anymore! In the Exams, don't expect me to help you even if you're dying!" he yells and storms off, jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

The boy looks at Sasuke and Sasuke looks at him, "You have a deal," he steps onto the dock, "What do you want in return? You can't just want safety in greater numbers."

The boy shakes his head, "Of course not. Him and I, even as prickly as we might be around each other, are actually close. He sees me as a rival, mainly because in Kumo I had entered the Academy two years his junior but ended up graduating in the same year as he, who had been in the Academy for six years, and I only four. And, we look kind of similar, don't we?"

"Yeah, I noticed that," Sasuke says, recalling the shininess, both of the boy's deep black and Haruki's deep green, of their round eyes, facial shape, and jet-black quality of their hair. Haruki has straighter hair, but at the roots his hair is just as dark as Sasuke's, and just as dark as the boy's, "Are you two related?"

The boy shrugs, "I don't know. Both of us are orphans."

Sasuke doesn't show the boy pity, since he understood exactly what that feels like, "Well?"

"Is there somewhere private we can talk?" the boy asks.

Sasuke nods and leads him to one of the training grounds on the compound. He takes a seat on a tree stump and gestures for him to speak.

The boy takes a deep breath, "One of the reasons I wanted an ally was because my teammates aren't trustworthy. They'd been acting strangely lately back in Kumo. I never noticed it back in the Academy and not even up until recently. After a mission, I was tasked with writing the report and needed their input. I didn't know where they lived and ended up wandering around until I saw them walking towards one of the training grounds. I trailed them and once they stopped, I saw them exchange information with an old man with a rusted hitai-ate. After my teammates left, I apprehended the man and took the scrolls and papers. They were all classified documents, a few even mentioning several Jōnin. Some were even on Haruki and myself. Half of it was in some code and the other half in neat calligraphy. A few weeks passed before they just abandoned my sensei and I to infiltrate and blow up a huge mansion on a mission. In shock, I watched them murder all these people with silver hair and green eyes," he shakes his head.

* * *

Corpses litter the ground, lightly dusted with dirt and sticky with blood. Lots of blood. Arms, toes, legs, bones, rotting flesh... In the rubble, clearly the epicenter of whatever had caused such a huge wave of death, a child cries loudly. Upon seeing another person, dragging his feet in horror at the sight of all the death and flies and bodies halved and shaking, the child weakly brings herself to her feet. Small plumes of dust rise up with each shaky step she takes and desperation shines in her glassy eyes. A single crow flies overhead, cawing before circling away.

Aside from the girl and her ragged breaths and her bare feet stepping one after the other clumsily towards him, it is completely silent.

"The silence…" he mutters, "It's been a long time since I've heard silence like this."

The girl finally reaches him and then trips. Her small hand grasps his pant leg as he reaches down to grasp a ribbon in her hair, tying a pigtail back. The ribbon easily comes undone and short hair falls to create an even more disheveled looking girl.

She looks up at him, a monster of a man, and tears streak down her face as she pleads something. Of what, he doesn't know.

So, naturally, he offers her a lollipop with a smile, "Here."

A few minutes pass before her little hand tugs his pant leg along, leading him to the rubble. She vigorously points at the pile of endless rubble and gestures for him to lift it.

 _Are you sure? She's been through enough. She doesn't have to see what's underneath._

He bends over and chakra courses through his veins as he strains to lift up a large beam. After straining and grunting for a few moments, he throws the beam aside to reveal a handsome teenager about sixteen or seventeen with dried blood on his head. His pained face accompanies slow and shallow breaths. He opens his eyes, a beautiful shade of forest green with specks of gold, upon sensing the slight warmth from the sun. His eyes slowly look over and catch sight of the girl, who hesitantly smiles as she grips his rough hand in her smaller one. He wheezes, barely moving his papery lips, before coughing.  
He reaches out and knocks the lollipop to the ground. He glares harshly, "Leave."

Bee is slightly taken aback by the boy's rude manner but decides to give the injured boy another chance, "What happened here?"

"Damn Kumo shinobi, that's what," he crawls from the rubble before collapsing on his back, his face red with the effort.

"What?" Bee frowns.

 _So you're serious enough now not to rap? Finally…_

"Don't play dumb," he coughs before continuing, "You sent those assassins from the Royal Guard to kill us! Don't you understand we're fighting for justice?!"

* * *

With one eye closed, a scarred and charred landscape spreads out before him, dotted with blackened shrubs and lined by a thick forest half a mile away. With the other eye, he doesn't look at the burns and cuts and dried blood, but at the very irritated Kage a few yards away from him.

"You've no chakra after teleporting so many times over so many miles in such a short time," the Kage smirks, "Even if you pull something out of your sleeve, the ANBU outpost is in the trees behind you. Retreating to the outpost and turning yourself in for killing your clan will just delay your death. Stop running around and die!" the Kage rushes towards him.

Half a mile away, ANBU shout out flurry of orders as one Black Ops agent peers through a telescope. Oblivious to the chaos around him, he stares in disbelief at the two figures battling afar. In slow motion, the telescope drops as someone shakes his shoulder and birds fly out and several ANBU prepare sealing formulas and the telescope lens cracks and falls out. One figure will die, if not from the lightning radiating from the other figure, then from his wounds. A gash on his leg, a slash on his back, a bleeding bruise—possibly a concussion—on his head, all on top of slow reaction time and low chakra reserves.

Without a second thought, the Black Ops agent springs through the trees and leaves barely rustle as he whizzes past. He doesn't see the forest around him or the branches underneath his feet. He can only see the bloody figure ahead. He can only feel the bastardly fear in his chest. He wants nothing more than not to feel it and to remain at the post, but his body moved on its own. _Being around her has certainly revived some sort of feeling in me._

The Raikage smirks widely as Shisui hits the ground and his body shakes involuntarily from fatigue and his vision blurs.

 _I've got to make it in time!_

He prepares himself to bring down his fist upon the man's stomach and gouge out his eyes to use for his village's power. After all, there was never a limit to how strong a shinobi and his village could be. Shisui's open eye widens as his life flashes in front of him.

 _"Tou-chan, look!" he points rudely out to one of Konoha's heroes, "That's the Shiroi Kiba, right?"_

 _Kagami places a hand on his younger son's shoulder, "That's right. He's a very strong shinobi."_

 _Shisui squints to see the small shadow of a girl trailing the shinobi shining in the morning sun with confidence, "Who's that?"_

 _"That's his daughter," Nagadachi looks over at his younger brother, "She'll be in your class when the Academy starts. Since her father is highly respected, be nice to her. If I hear you've done anything to disgrace our Uchiha name, you'll regret it," his black eyes bore into Shisui's menacingly._

 _Shisui rolls his eyes, "Yeah, yeah."_

 _Kagami smiles a little, "Already five and showing so much attitude."_

He can hear the buzzing next to his ears and then fear sets in.

 _"Kushina-sensei! Minato-sensei!" a Jōnin-level Shisui comes running up to them with overflowing excitement._

 _The woman three months pregnant with long red hair walks with a nervous blonde man gripping her hand until his knuckles turned white turn to look at Kushina's former student. She roughly pushes Minato away and smiles brightly, "Shisui-kun! It's been a long time. Busy with your clan? Mikoto-chan was telling me all about it."_

 _He holds out a small box and opens it. Inside is a depression where something used to be. Minato furrows his brows, "Isn't that a ring box?" then his face brightens, "So that means—"  
"She said yes!" Shisui exclaims._

Shisui sees a black blur and something shatters.

 _Tears roll down his cheeks in pure elation and joy and mild shock. His ears ring with the still-unfamiliar sound of the defiant cry of new life breathing in his first few breaths. Shisui can't take his eyes off of the crying infant and stares in disbelief._

 _"I'm…" he mutters as a beam threatens to split his face in two, "I'm a father!"_

Porcelain shards fall to the ground as blood sprays everywhere. The shards catch the light and gleam like polished teeth. Lightning crackles loudly before slowly dying down. His heartbeat races and makes the veins on his neck quiver with each beat. Shisui looks up to see a man looking at him from the corner of his red eye, "A-are you alright… _Shisui_?"

A huge and terribly deep gash spanning from the Black Ops agent's shoulder to his stomach gushes with warm blood. It drips down thickly and some sit atop the white shards. It seeps into his clothes and into the ground and into Shisui's clothes. It coats the Kage's knuckles. The agent's gloved hands grip the Raikage's fist.

"N-nagadachi…" the name is oddly foreign.

" _Nagadachi!_ " Shisui shrieks as sobs pierce the air and his elder brother begins to fall.


	13. Chapter 13

"Nagadachi," Shisui's voice is barely audible as he holds his brother in his arms and tears roll down his face. "Nagadachi…nagadachi…nagadachi…H-hey!" his voice cracks more and more as he holds the bloody form of his taller, lankier brother. He stares at his face and then looks up to his eyes, covered by his eyelids. Nagadachi hadn't even cried when Fugaku had branded him with that seal, preventing him from ever being able to deactivate his sharingan. Shisui is sure that Nagadachi still held some sort of bitter grudge against him, because he, the younger brother, was able to achieve everything he wanted from helping his country win the War to becoming a Jōnin to having a family. Friends and family, especially Kagami, surrounded Shisui while Nagadachi toiled in darkness in Black Ops.

The ANBU doesn't move. The Raikage drops to a knee as he visibly winces from a tiny pinprick, but it isn't like the Uchiha notices. To the Kage, it's obvious in the heat of the battle the gloves must've been covering a syringe filled with poison and pushing down his fist to prevent it from going through the ANBU's entire abdomen had pushed down the plunger and nearly all the poison went in. The Kage quickly loses consciousness before the Uchiha. Shisui looks from his brother to the Kage in complete shock. Shisui doesn't quite process the unconscious Kage. His body still shakes with sobs and involuntary whispers of 'I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry'. But, what wakes him up is the ANBU teams coming from behind. Shisui holds his brother tightly and sprints off. A trail of blood is left behind from his wound and the ANBU quickly take advantage of it, gaining on the two Uchiha.

* * *

"Again."

Like machines, the children go through their stances again. Their eyes no longer shine with memories of going up and down slides and playing ninja and their smile lines had faded completely. Instead, a glaze set over their sunken eyes. As he knows, there are two reasons for this. One is that the children have fallen into line with ANBU Black Ops—most were ROOT candidates, really—training and lifestyle of no band-aids or Kaa-san holding your hand. The other is the slow increase on drugs. The children are already being kept within the barracks all day every day and have no way to access outside food. The only food and water they get is from the refectories— _as Hound liked to put it_ —and that in the beginning was barely laced with much of anything, but after nearly a year the children had been slowly addicted to it. The way he sees it, drugging the children is more useful than not. Danzō wouldn't do it if it weren't. The children are, unconsciously or not, addicted to the drugs, which are obtained from the food in the barracks. After such a long time, the children are unlikely to trust any outside food. This will prevent against any accidental deaths, like poisonings. The children would only eat the food from the barracks or the food in their packs, ensuring a higher rate of mission success. The other was to tie them to Black Ops more firmly. It's not hard to understand how food, regardless of the drug aspect, can create trusting connotations regarding the place of origin of the food. Drugs and its subsequent addiction only made the tie stronger. Plus, it made any bad memories of harsh training or the killing of one of the recruits to be a hazy outline at the least or completely forgotten at the most.

Hawk watches them carefully before a boy slips and his partner sends him flying. Hawk watches in mild amusement as the boy arcs through the air and slams into Danzō's office. The sliding doors snap and he shakes his head as he faintly hears a few bones in the boy's body break.

Danzō materializes out of thin air, fuming, "Hawk. Come here."

"Yes, sir," Hawk says and strides over before kneeling.

"Clean that up. Replace my doors before I come back from Post 20," Danzō orders, "And, before this happens again, you _will_ train your recruits better or so help me I will order agent Hound back here to electrocute you so slowly you'd wish you died!"

"…Yes, sir," Hawk says in monotone, unsure of how to respond to Danzō's sudden mention of a dishonorably discharged agent. He turns on a heel and walks away, leaving Hawk to jump up to the traditional-style office and plucks his bleeding student up. The boy groans in pain before passing out. Hawk shakes his head, remembering him as the boy who had survived Hound's brutal weeding out of the recruits.

As he organizes the scrolls and papers, rolling and stacking them up, he snickers softly. Post 20 is the closest ANBU outpost to Kumogakure, and by default the farthest Post there from to Konoha. If Danzō himself has to go out in person somewhere, Hawk can only imagine what had happened.

Ten minutes later, Hawk watches his clones for a moment as they repair the doors and looks around to check for more debris to pick up, but finds none. The boy stirs slightly and a scroll falls from his pocket. Hawk snatches it from him before he can take it back. The boy panics and leaps out of the office and back to the other recruits. Hawk looks after him, but ends up looking the open scroll. He would've normally refrained from looking at it; he probably hadn't the kind of clearance needed to look at much of anything in Danzō's office. _Although, since he trusted me to do this, I probably have high enough clearance._ The scroll beckons him to look and his eyes catch a name: _Hatake Sakumo._ Mildly intrigued, he begins to read, starting from the word 'betrayal'. It isn't long before his smirk fades away to a grimace.

* * *

 _I noticed a friend of yours entered the compound. Care to elaborate?_ Kagami writes on a piece of paper and slides it over to his adopted grandson. Kagami's black eyes shine with amusement when he sees Sasuke's surprised expression, but Kagami had told him that he presided over the barrier. The barrier was such that it would be stronger with Uchiha within the compound than without, although for security purposes it wouldn't completely disappear. It was always strong enough to keep out stray Senju that lacked an escort, which was the main use at the time of its creation. Now, it kept out most shinobi except for ANBU stationed there or skilled fūinjutsu shinobi.

"He's not my friend," Sasuke scowls, "Just an ally. He was looking for an alliance because he couldn't trust his teammates and because we 'have the same goal'."

 _Which would be?_ Kagami arches a brow, hoping Sasuke had changed his mind since the funeral.

"I will kill Itachi," Sasuke says seriously, "And he wants to kill Shisui, for coming into his village and causing their Kage and his ANBU to go after him and leave the village virtually unprotected. Simply put, Shisui greatly weakened their village."

 _I see._ Kagami doesn't want to egg him on with the knowledge that Shisui and the Raikage were still fighting afar. He'd only been briefed on the potential security hazard regarding his compound (especially Sasuke) this morning.

Then Sasuke scratches his face and looks away, "Sorry…to bring him up."

 _I'm surprised you didn't catch yourself earlier. I think to myself: 'What does that mean?' Sasuke, I know my words will not stop you, but you must think this through: killing Itachi may bring you momentary peace but what will you sacrifice in killing him? I can see you abandoning your friends and becoming miserable just to kill an even more miserable boy._

"Miserable boy?" Sasuke repeats, holding the paper in his hand, "What, you pity Itachi? Do you sympathize with that murderer?" his voice remains calm; he isn't about to explode in front of his grandfather. That would kick him out of the compound.

Kagami shakes his head and takes the paper back.

 _I just worry about you. Ever since I lost Shirusu and Yūko, I haven't anyone to dote on, except you._

Sasuke gives him a skeptical look but sighs, not wanting to argue with the sad old man.

* * *

"Sorry, but," Saisho smiles at his team as he hands them their Exam tickets, "I'm afraid I have something to do. I can't watch you three compete, but I know you'll do well. Even you, Aiko," he smiles and pats her head. She beams and grins wider as he gives her a lollipop, "Before I go, however, there's something I want you two to know."

His gaze turns to Chojūro and Suigetsu, "I want you two to make it your mission to obliterate the Kumo teams. Both of them. Even if you can't kill all six, I want the black-haired boys dead. I'm not supposed to say this, but those boys are spies from Kumo. After the war scare last year at the iron deposits in the Land of Iron, Kumo and Iwa have strengthened their ties. No one in the Konoha, Kiri, Suna, Ame, or any country knows what they plan to do but there's a strong possibility they plan to seize control of Kiri's fertile waters and Konoha's rich land. In the process, this would cause a war. Together, those two countries are nearly unstoppable. I'm no ANBU and I'm not assigned to missions with ANBU, but I've read reports of two figures, around the ages of Genin, often lurking around the restricted areas of Kiri. If you do this, you'll be given a field promotion to Chūnin, regardless if you do become Chūnin here."

"Understood, sensei," Chojūro and Suigetsu say, sharing a look of glee. To Saisho, it's heartwarming to see two of Kiri's most promising swordsmen (boys, really) get along so easily.

To Aiko, Saisho hands a piece of paper folded in half. She takes it and continues to crunch on the pieces of the lollipop. Saisho waves before vanishing into the trees. Aiko finishes munching on the candy and looks up, feeling a gaze. She peers with hand to keep the sunlight out of her eyes into the trees. Quickly but quietly, she takes out shuriken and throws it into the tree's bushy leaves. It rustles, but no one screams or hisses.

 _Maybe it was just my imagination that someone was watching._

"You too, huh Aiko?" Suigetsu glances over at her serious face, "The hairs on the back of my neck have been standing on end lately. I doubt it's just the ANBU, but even they're just as fierce. I saw an Iwa girl being dragged back to her room yesterday."

"Why?" Chojūro adjusts the sword on his back as he looks around, suddenly keenly aware of the tall trees surrounding them on three sides. He peers nervously into the foliage, not wanting an ANBU to pop out.

"I guess it was Black Ops because the ANBU were really stiff and stated her crime—misdemeanor I guess—in a clipped tone. She had not only glued the doors to several rooms of other Genin in the Exams shut, but also had planted light bombs around the market. She was let go after her sensei stepped in, but the ANBU wouldn't let up. He ended up giving her a temporary chakra burn to mark her and said that 'this infraction will affect your ability to become a Chūnin' and 'the only way for you to become a Chūnin now is to get first place in the Finals; I will make sure of this'," Suigetsu says.

* * *

"Tsuji," Toyo's eyes flit over at his sister's matching black ones.

"I know," she says, her voice edged with annoyance. She pulls back her silver hair and inserts a silver pin to hold the bun in place. A rustle in the trees silences the twins' breath and heartbeat. A figure, dressed in Iwa garb, appears before them in a showy performance. Before landing, he does a backflip with two twists in the air and even puts on a smile. When his feet touch the ground, he kicks up some dirt and the twins use their sleeves to breath through. They narrow their eyes and fall into defensive stances.

"What do you want?" Toyo demands.

The man straightens up before flicking his wrist. Something squeaks before the twins find themselves unable to move and the rough bark of the surrounding trees digging into their clothes and backs. Tsuji glares openly at the man, unafraid of the wrath his eyes promise.

"What do you think I want? You two are barely on the cusp of being teenagers—a mere 14 years old—but that is no longer a card you can pull from your hand. You're adults now. Do you have any idea how many people you've killed?" his eyes turn cold as his smile remains.

"Why should that—" Tsuji starts.

"Tsuji, don't engage him," Toyo hisses. He turns to the silver-haired man, "What are you getting at?"

"Simply put, it's this: you two blew up an estate, murdering over a hundred people. While my insides churn in disgust, I can rest my heart in the knowledge that despite your special training in the Royal Guard you were unable to kill Lady Leader," he says.

"I told you we should've gone back," Tsuji sends her brother a dark look.

"I won't pry into your lives, but you should at least hear our cause out," he steps closer towards Tsuji and uses the tip of a finger to raise her chin. Her fiery look burns holes into him.

"You're a pretty girl. Can't you spare a moment to listen?" he tilts his head a little.

"Get away from her, you creep!" Toyo strains against the wire. His skin breaks under the wire and blood drips down.

"Say it!" Tsuji yells, "Say it and leave!"

"Right," his eyes form two crescents in joy, "Before the start of the Third War, there was a woman called 'Rakuko'. She was a master in the art of making remedies for anything, especially things for depression, sadness, and loneliness. All that she met, including people in the shinobi nations loved her. She brought nothing but happiness to everyone and she even became well known in the Royal Court—you know, the place where that old geezer Sakumo lolls around in. She wanted to share this with other Hatake and she wanted these Hatake to share these skills with the shinobi nations. In this way, she believed that the horrors of the Second War could be avoided. She warned that the embers of war were being stoked once more by the distant shinobi nations and that not acting would harm the Hatake Clan. No one, not even Sakumo, believed her. At first, the Royal Court tolerated her words as she passionately argued before the Court, thinking her to be a strange woman. However, when she realized that none were taking her seriously, she began to reach out to the Clan, specifically those who believed that an exodus from the Clan to the shinobi lands would save them from their poverty. Perhaps you don't know, but those in poverty with green eyes are a distinct branch of the Clan. The Royal Court feverishly denies this, however. Because of their eye color, they are discriminated against and forced to live in certain areas only. They are unable to speak to, look at, share food, water, or necessities with, go to the same schools—if they go to school at all—, or marry, among other things, with those Hatake with black eyes. The police often charge them for petty crimes and beat them until they die or starve them in prison. It's illegal for them to have a trial, much less a fair one. It's a little hard for privileged kids like you to understand, with your pure black eyes and all, but they are suffering."

"What happened when the Third War began?" Tsuji asks despite herself.

"Don't ask that," Toyo warns, "He wants your sympathy!"

The man tightens his grip on the boy's restrains and he lets out a small gasp. His skin bleeds more.

"Well…" the man sighs, "Sakumo reinforced the borders and barriers around our clan himself. No shinobi could enter, he said. Rakuko completely disappeared and the Court claimed they had put down the heretic, a disgrace to her clan for interacting with the green-eyed people. For most of the duration of the War, the clan was safe. However, in the last year of it, a shinobi slipped in. I don't know who he was, why he did it, or if he is still alive, but he slaughtered over a thousand people, both those with green and black eyes that lived in the land surrounding the tallest snow-capped mountain. If you go into the countryside, you can hear a lot of stories about this killer, but even the old people say that they wouldn't be alive if they had seen him; only people who never saw his face are still alive. Despite what the Court says, and despite what Sakumo says, I know Sakumo knows who this man was. After prying, blackmail, and genjutsu, he finally told me. It was some 'Mikata' person. Yet, he refuses to tell anyone because he's a filthy coward. He fears that uttering even the name of the killer will incite him to come back and annihilate the entire clan."

"You fight because you despise Sakumo-sama," Tsuji says, "And that's a common interest between you, a man with privileged eyes, and the green-eyed Hatake. The green-eyed Hatake don't like the Royal Court or Sakumo because they are oppressed and discriminated against. They want to be treated equally, so they're rebelling?"

He grins, "So Sakumo told you about the rebellion? Makes sense, I suppose. You two are part of his Royal Guard."

"Enough," Toyo growls, "You've said enough. Now leave."

"Not quite yet," he says, "I want to know something. Why are you two undercover, acting like Genin? What kind of order did Sakumo give you? Some sort of spying thing to keep an eye on me?"

"Like I'll tell you!" Tsuji says defiantly, her obsidian eyes shining with bravery. He chuckles and shifts his weight from one foot to the other.

"Well, I suppose that's fine. I'll keep a _very_ ," his breath tickles her ear as he leans close, too close for Toyo's comfort.

"Hey!" Toyo barks, "Get away from her!"

" _very_ , close eye on you two. I'll find out sooner or later," he says and disappears in a blur.

The wire loosens and Toyo grasps his bloody arms. Tsuji rubs her ear, to rid the feeling of his breath. She digs in her pocket and produces a roll of white bandages. As she wordlessly wraps her brother's wounds with the cotton strip, she feels his glare boring holes into her head. She ties it off and he jerks away from her.

"You're welcome," she says, annoyed.

"Why did you even humor him? We're part of the _Royal Guard_!" Toyo grips her shoulders and scowls, "What on earth were you thinking?! If we can't do our job with him watching, why did we leave home to come here at all? He'll try his damnedest to stop us. Why did you help him? Have you forgotten what we're here for?" his eyes search hers for an answer.

"No, I haven't. I was the one who volunteered, remember?" Tsuji pushes him away, "I wanted to know why he, a former head of the Royal Guard, would turn his back against Sakumo-sama. What he told us might be falsified, but at least we know our enemy. We have to know our enemy to fight, Toyo," she says, "And, don't ever tell me what I can and can't do again. Have _you_ forgotten our childhood, how everyone told us and pitied us for being orphans with no future? Just how many Hatake get the chance to venture out and show off their skills in front of leaders of the shinobi nations? This is an _honor_ , Toyo. We've achieved so much and I'll be damned if anyone tries to stop us. We promised Mother and Father that we'd make them proud," she places a hand on his shoulder, "Let's make them proud, shall we?"

"Y-yeah," Toyo says, scratching his face. His stomach growls, "But let's get lunch before that, okay?"

"You're paying," Tsuji says, grinning.

"What?" his eyes widen and his head snaps up, "I paid last time!"

"You yelled at me and," she places a hand over her heart and the back of her other hand on her forehead and closes her eyes dramatically, "Hurt my heart."

"Oh, shut up," he smacks her head.

"Ow!" she cries before punching his wounds.  
He hisses in pain, "Fine, fine, I'll pay!" he grumbles.

She beams with joy, "Now that's the kind brother I know! Let's get ramen!"

"More noodles…" he groans, feeling nauseous at the very thought of the warm worms in a bowl. "Really?"

* * *

"I…I was attacked," Rin swallows back a sob, "I was so scared."

Kosari sits in a chair with a carefully blank face as she listens to Rin's story.

"They demanded to get some medications. I told them that those kinds of medications, some of them lethal if you take one pill too many, are heavily restricted and take several months to prepare. They didn't like that answer and began to break my bones, threatening to kill me if I didn't hand them over right then and there. Somehow, they knew I was the only one with the key to unlock the seal that binds the case with the ingredients for it. I…I think there's some mole in the hospital that's supplying them with information," she grips Kosari's cold hand tightly, "Maybe they even report to Orochimaru. I'm sure you've heard about all his experiments and medical monstrosities."

"Yes, I have," Kosari says. _Well, this is…interesting._

"You're the only one I can trust," tears roll down Rin's face, "Please. I need you to find them and find out whom they work for. The thought that they could still be around while I lay here in the hospital terrifies me. They might just change their mind and kill me."

"Don't worry," Kosari says, "If you'd like, I can request additional ANBU to guard your room."

"There are already enough ANBU," Rin says and closes her eyes.

"Well…" Kosari cups her chin thoughtfully, "I can put up a barrier. It is strong enough to keep away most ANBU. I can set it up so that only a select few can come in. I'll need them to come here to give blood samples, though."

"T-that sounds better," Rin says. Kosari gives Rin an ANBU smile and leans over to hug her. Without Rin's noticing, she slips a bug on the underside of the woman's gurney and puts a genjutsu over it, concealing it completely. Rin sobs a little, "I'm so glad you're still here."

"Still?" Kosari repeats as she straightens up, "What do you mean? Am I going somewhere?"

"N-no," Rin smiles, "It's just…your father and then Kakashi…"

Kosari narrows her eyes, "My father?"

"Sorry, sensitive subject, I get it," Rin says, with her hands up in a placating fashion, "I'll send for the others to come. One of the administrators is doing a slew of surgeries so it might take a while so you can come back later after they give some samples. Five milliliters should be enough, right?"

"Yes," Kosari says as she strides towards the door, "It was nice seeing you. Get better soon, Nohara-san."

"Yeah, thanks," Rin says as Kosari closes the door behind her. She gives a nod to the ANBU guarding Rin's door and walks out of the sterile-smelling hospital.

* * *

"You sure you want to stick around?" she stirs a pot of tasteless soup for the millionth time.

The old woman has the face of a bulldog and wrinkly features that make a raisin look as smooth as a peach. Her skin was a pinkish color, but had a luster of being dug up from her grave after a couple centuries. She sported a shiny silver band around her finger, but that was the only sign of wealth she had in her tiny thatched hut. Numerous times, ants darted in and out of the shadows underneath the tatami mats and yellow larvae of some sort of bug crawled slowly, visible in the holes in the mats. The woman does have a cat, but the cat seemed to be somewhere else and constantly thirsty; it leapt from its perch by the window to the large bowl of water next to the woman's feet. Then, it would make its way haphazardly, risking falling a few times, back to the sill. There, it would simply sit and gaze out of the window, not intrigued at all by the buzzing fly slamming itself against the dirty glass again and again.

"Not that I mind, but," she continues.

The cat leaps again and this time it doesn't land correctly. It slams its bony body against the unforgiving floor and something snaps. When its musty orange fur, probably once quite beautiful and soft, hits the floor, a layer of dust is lifted and a small tsunami wave ripples outward. Weightless, the tsunami carries the dust for several feet. The cat pushes forward and with a slight limp, it reaches the bowl of water. Upon closer inspection, the bowl's water is too shiny and viscous. The woman reaches down with speed and nimbleness that is just impossible for a hag like her and takes away the bowl. The cat blinks very slowly before making a strange mew. It sounds nothing like a cat's mew; it sounds like a cough. Then, the cat walks away and sits outside the doorway to the hut.

"These here kids aren't yours," she says, "And by the looks of you, I'd reckon you'd be busy and have some sort of business elsewhere. But, there's plenty of rice I can stew up and you seem to be comfy leanin' against that wall. What's mine is yours."

"Thanks," Bee mutters.

The woman wipes down a ladle with an equally dirty cloth and ladles some soup out into a bowl that Bee would feel more comfortable eating off the ground. He knows that with the tailed beast within him any illness he could get from the soup, ladle, bowl, and less likely the ground would be taken care of easily, but he still doesn't like the prospect of vomiting the rest of the night.

The woman offers the bowl to girl, who shies away and sticks her tongue out disrespectfully. Bee looks at her and shakes his head, "She's just a kid. I'm sure she'll come around sooner or later."

The woman nods slowly before setting it down on the floor and taking a seat next to the boy. Earlier, after getting angry in the rubble, he'd fainted. Bee supposed bringing him somewhere would be better than the destroyed mansion he laid in. He slowly opens his eyes and moans in pain. The woman frowns and for a moment, Bee is sure that part of her face will just fall off. Only, it doesn't, and she gets up. She shuffles over to a cabinet full of glass jars filled with herbs and takes out a few. She takes out a weathered wheel mortar and begins grinding up herbs. The boy falls back into unconsciousness but his brows still furrow in pain. After a time, the girl walks over to him and curls up beside him, quickly asleep.

* * *

The ANBU quickly apprehend the wounded Uchiha Shisui. With low chakra, his hands full with another and unable to weave seals, and a body cut up and bruised and battered from fighting the Raikage, there was a slim chance he could've kept up running away. The ANBU were in much better shape chakra and stamina wise, and unless he killed himself by using up the remainder of his chakra, he couldn't have gotten away.

Their rough gloved hands first force him face-first into the ground and he spits out dirt. When he does cough, the ANBU are quick to pull him to his feet, and then sucker punch him in the chest. He dry heaves in pain and would've fallen back down if the ANBU hadn't decided to tie him to a particularly rough tree and slapped on several chakra suppressors. The bark threatens to break his skin. With his worsening back and aching body and mouth full of grit and self-loathing due to having been caught by ANBU, Shisui finds thinking a way of out of the mess he's in rather difficult. One ANBU decides to patch up Nagadachi's wounds and Shisui barely pays him any attention.

"What do you think Hokage-sama will say?" one ANBU says. Shisui can just hear the smirk behind the blue-accented mask. Normally something like that would've just slid off his back but in his weakened and painful state the words sting. Even as a rogue shinobi, he has his pride.

"Maybe he'll congratulate us. I bet we'll all get promoted," another ANBU laughs.

Beside Shisui, although less restrained, without chakra suppressors, and tied to another tree is Nagadachi. His torso is completely covered in white bandages and Shisui can already see the beginnings of a fever on his face. _Nagadachi never had a good immune system. Every cut was a concern, but that was why he trained harder than I did. He wanted to be strong enough not to get hurt. I never understood why he had to leave the clan, though. ANBU is cutthroat enough, but Black Ops? That division is inhumane. I always wanted to ask, but…_

"What about this guy?" an ANBU jerks a thumb at Nagadachi, "He jumped in to save this murderer. That's treason. Uchiha Shisui is an S-Ranked rogue. We should just kill them both."

"…whatever happened to…" Nagadachi whispers, his voice barely audible. The ANBU look over and cross their arms. Nagadachi would've smiled after getting the arrogant and, to him, soft and coddled regular ANBU members to listen to him, but pain razes his mind, "T&I? Wouldn't you like to know…why Shisui killed his clan…and his children?"

"Children?" one ANBU repeats. Then he narrows his eyes at Shisui, "That's beyond cruel. Children can't fight. I bet a sick murderer like you made them suffer a slow death."

"And killed their mother right in front of them," another ANBU hisses, "Bastard. You don't deserve to live."

"But, this Black Ops agent does pose an intriguing notion," another ANBU says thoughtfully, "I've been reading a lot of these crime stories and while the detail of the killing is interesting, finding out the motive is what keeps me hooked," he places a hand on his hip, "Well? Just why did you do all this?"

Shisui slowly raises his eyes to meet the twin holes in their masks, "Why would you want to know a lie?" his black eyes slide over to burn holes in Nagadachi's head.

"You deny your own children and wife's deaths?" an ANBU scowls.

Shisui remains silent, glaring harshly at Nagadachi. Ever since Nagadachi graduated early from the Academy and joined ANBU and then Black Ops a few years later, Shisui had never talked to him. He couldn't, theoretically. He could track him down on a mission and find him, but with increasing pressure from Fugaku and the clan and Itachi needing his help, he hadn't any time to look for his brother. _To be honest, I was bitter too. He left Tou-san and Kaa-san and I without saying goodbye._ Nagadachi was little more than a stranger, to some extent.

"What's that look for?" Nagadachi's words slur, "I'm not afraid of you, Shisui."

"For what?" Shisui demands, "Leaving?"

Nagadachi doesn't look at him, "I'm not afraid of an emotional Uchiha. I just wish that—"

"That's enough out of you," one ANBU says and steps on Nagadachi's toes, grinding them into the ground until a few sickening snaps reaches Shisui's ears. Nagadachi's face goes blank and he shuts his eyes tightly.

"Damn Black Ops agents," the ANBU mutters, "I hate them."

"So arrogant," another sighs, "Acting like they're better than us regular ANBU."

"Did you hear about that one Black Ops agent?" another ANBU leans against a tree and nonchalantly crosses his arms.

"What agent?" the blue-masked ANBU shifts from leaning on his left to his right foot, intrigued.

"I saw it with my own eyes. In front of Danzō and all these Jōnin like Hatake Kakashi, Sarutobi Asuma, and Anko, Hokage-sama dishonorably discharged one of the Black Ops agents. I'm not supposed to talk about it, but I can in front of two dead men and you all. We all have the same clearance," he glances over at Shisui and Nagadachi before continuing, "Anyway, he not only didn't give Hatake Kakashi the Genin team he wanted, but forced the top agent of Black Ops to lead them. A few moments later, he burned her contract right in front of her. She broke. Lightning burst out from not her hands like I thought it would, but everywhere around her. My hair stood out on end as she tried to attack Hokage-sama. It was a show of skilled chakra control, but she failed. As tears rolled down her face, she voiced her anger, saying how Hokage-sama had taken away everything she cherished while she risked her life on S-Ranked missions, only to find out that the people she cared for were dead. She blamed Hokage-sama for not having protected them," he sighs.

"The way that sounds is that Black Ops is weak. Just what I thought. Especially that agent you're talking about. She, a top agent, couldn't protect the people she cared about? Just what kind of agent is that? Hasn't Hokage-sama realized this? She should be demoted, or maybe even forced out of the shinobi ranks. She's the definition of unfit for duty. What a disgrace," another ANBU remarks.

"You pieces of shit," Nagadachi's voice shakes with ire, "You understand nothing. You're to show respect to Hound! Not only was she your superior as a Black Ops agent but…" he coughs, "As an Elite Jōnin is your equal. She's stronger than you, or me, or Shisui. She sacrificed a happy life with the people she loved for the village. She was always on a mission, or training, and unlike any other agent never kept her paycheck. She always deposited it and never withdrew. She starved herself and only bought new uniforms when they were ripped into shreds and couldn't be sewed together. She barely slept. What kept her going was the belief that the people she cared about were alive. She risked her life every day, knowing that that day could be her last. Stupidly, she pushed herself, not realizing how sad they would be if she died. But, she would be a hero. An unrecognized, unknown hero. Forgotten. She didn't care about petty promotions like you weak ANBU do. She cares about this village more than any of you could understand!"

"W-what?" Shisui mutters, "The people she cared about…are dead?"

Nagadachi keeps his eyes closed, "Why would Hound lie about something like that? I respect her; I didn't pry into her life, but something awful must've happened for her to blame the Hokage for it."

"What happened?" Shisui demands, a hint of panic in his voice.

"So you know her too?" an ANBU grabs Shisui's collar, "Is she some sort of accomplice? Is she a spy?"

* * *

"There's been a rather surprising report," Hiruzen laces his fingers together, "I'd like for all of you to go on behalf of this report. I don't want to take any chances."

"What's this report?" Asuma pinches the end of his cigarette. With the Exams so soon and almost all of the Elite Jōnin in his office, he can only fear the worst. Had Iwa and Kumo done something?

"Uchiha Shisui has been spotted fighting the Raikage. He fled pursuing ANBU, but in his weakened state he is likely to be captured and detained. Danzō has already left to pursue him, but I'd like for you all to go as reinforcements. Kurenai, Kosari; I'll be counting on you two to deflect Shisui's genjutsu. Ko, you'll be everyone's eyes. The rest of you are on the defensive. I'll be counting on Gai to lead them. Your job is to ensure that Uchiha Shisui makes it to Konoha to be detained for questioning. A few of you are likely to be assigned to ensure he doesn't escape his holding cell."

"Fighting the Raikage? Just…how? Why?" Kurenai asks.

"I'm not entirely sure, but Shisui and Itachi had gone to Kumogakure before Shisui was pursued by the Raikage. I suppose Shisui must've teleported over a long distance to be within the Land of Fire's borders," Hiruzen says, "Do not waste any more time. Go!"

"Yes, sir," the Jōnin say before vanishing from his office.

Before the Chūnin at the gates can recognize most of the faces, the Jōnin have already flown past them. Gai quickly takes a headcount of the Jōnin in the group. _We've got myself, Asuma, Kurenai, Hayate, Ebisu, Ko and Kosari. We might just be able to stand up to Shisui._

After two hours of traveling in silence at top speed, Ko exclaims, "I see Danzō, some ANBU, and Uchiha Shisui three miles ahead!"

"Good," Gai says, "Kurenai, is there any genjutsu?"

"Not that I can see," Kurenai's hands are pressed together in a seal, "Kosari-chan?"

"I do not sense any disturbance in our chakra systems," Kosari says formally.

Ko purses his lips and looks over at Kosari for a third time since they'd lost sight of Konoha behind them. She ignores him. He can't help but worry for her, especially after he learned she knew of Kakashi's death. He feels around in his pocket for a sedative, not wanting to use it, but knowing he might to prevent Kosari from murdering Shisui. _Shisui might be a terrible person, but he's going to be useful if we're going to catch Itachi._

Asuma notices Ko feeling around in his pocket, "I have extra soldier pills if you need."

"Thank you, but I'm f—"

Out of nowhere, a silver light shines. Everyone stops, digging their heels into the bark. Ko turns his attention to the source and his eyes widen when he sees Kosari surrounded by the light. She examines her hands and glowing body in confusion and surprise. Then, in mere milliseconds, she is gone in a puff of smoke.

Ebisu scowls, "That was a summoning contract."

"Humans can be summoned?" Asuma mutters, his eyes wide.

"I don't really understand it all that well, but Yondaime-sama once mentioned it very quietly once. But, yes. Only animals are supposed to be used because their bodies can withstand moving so quickly. Humans are more fragile. Seals that can do this are most often forbidden seals. From what I could tell, Kosari-san doesn't have a large chakra capacity like Gai-san does. Animals don't lose much chakra from being summoned, but humans are said to lose more than half of their chakra from being summoned even over short distances."

"So…" Gai says seriously, "It could kill her?"

"Theoretically," Hayate says, "Ko-san, do you see her?"

"Y-yes," he says, "I think Danzō must've summoned her. She's over there now."

"Let's hurry then," Kurenai says and pushes forward.

In a serious silence, the Jōnin race towards where Ko leads them. They jump down to the trees where Danzō and the ANBU are, unprepared for the scene displayed under the bright green foliage.

Danzō holds a kunai in his hand, his attack stopped by Kosari. Blood drips from the sides of her mouth and her legs shake. Anger flashes in her eyes as Shisui, behind her, stares in shock. _How did she appear here? The Seijō should be deactivated by now._ Kosari grips her sword so hard her knuckles turn white. Around the hilt of the sword are two bands of metal, one gold and one silver. She grits her teeth as she strains against Danzō's kunai and the force behind it.

"Why are you protecting him? He's the one that took everything away from you!" Danzō exclaims, irate.

"It's my order, Danzō-sama. I—" Kosari says.

"Don't say another word," Shisui orders, glaring angrily at Danzō. _He tried to take my and Nagadachi's eyes and kill us!_ To Danzō's surprise and then anger, Kosari complies, her voice instantly dying in her throat. Ko is frozen in place and horror strips his face of color. The rest of the Jōnin make a wide circle around the ANBU and Danzō and Shisui, ready to take on Danzō's orders.

"Don't _ever_ ," Shisui raises his voice as his blood boils over, "Try to hurt him again. He's almost dead, and yet you have no respect for your own agent that you'd try to harm him?! You have no right to call yourself a Konoha shinobi!"

"Neither do you," Danzō's glare turns into a twisted smirk, "You're the one who killed your clan, son, and tried to even kill the woman protecting you now."

Kosari grits her teeth as her face heats up in shame. Danzō turns his attention to Kosari once more, "Tell me: did you appear here because of your past ties as an ANBU to the Uchiha clan? I'm referring to the fact I can sense some sort of seal restricting your free will. This is an **_order_**."

"Don't say anything," Shisui orders. Kosari's hands shake as the seal on her tongue and the seal on her back fight for dominance. Within moments, Kosari drops to the ground as black markings snake around her body. Around the markings, her skin turns red and she hisses in pain.

"Kosari!" Shisui exclaims, "What's—"

Before he can blink, Kosari has formed several seals and Danzō becomes immobilized along with two of the ANBU behind him. Ko takes a hesitant step back as Kosari's eyes turn into a shining silver color and Danzō's body begins to twist and contort slightly unnaturally. He gasps in pain and it isn't long before the Jōnin start to form his or her own ideas about what is happening.

"That's a suiton technique seal," Asuma says.

"She's…using Danzō-sama's blood…" Kurenai mutters, horrified.

"Just what…" Ebisu says, "Is she?"

"S-stop this," Danzō growls, his eyes disdainful. Then, blood starts to drip out from under his fingernails and out of one ear. He screams out in pain and can't even move from his spot. The blood condenses and forms red senbon that rise and rest between Kosari's fingers. The ANBU too scream in terror and pain as blood drips from their feet or mouths. Kosari forms several other seals and their bodies go rigid and their screams stop.

"Kosari…" Shisui utters, in shock and confusion, "What is this?"

Kosari blinks. Her eyes turn back to their normal obsidian color and she lets go of the seal her hands form and the ANBU faint or fall unconscious immediately and Danzō drops to his knees, panting heavily.

Kosari too drops to her knees as the markings recede on her body. She holds her head in her hands and Nagadachi watches her critically, barely able to keep himself conscious.

Shisui watches her and sees tears rolling down her cheeks, "Kosari—"

"Don't you dare!" Kosari yells as tears stream freely from her face, "Don't you dare order me again! I wanted nothing to do with you! You killed your clan, your family, and tried to kill me! You tried to kill my brother and dared give me _these!_ " she rips off the bands of silver and gold from the sword and hurls them at him, "You are what my nightmares are made of! Even if you're far away, you're still killing me in my dreams! No matter how far I tried to get from you, you still hurt me! Don't humiliate me more by showing how you have power over me! I've lost everything and yet you want to take away even my dignity?!"

"Power…" Shisui says to himself, "Does that mean that…" _The Seijō?!_

Kosari pushes herself to her feet and punches Shisui in the face. Before he can tell her to stop—forcing her to do so—she slugs him harder. Her hands turn red with his blood and with each succeeding punch she screams, partly in fear and partly in anger.

"I hate you," she says as she pants, drained from the summoning and drained from whatever monstrous power had overtaken her and controlled Danzō's blood and drained from yelling. She leans against the tree trunk with her head bowed. Her vision goes fuzzy and Ko catches her as she falls after fainting.

He glares at Shisui and sneers, "Kushina-sensei would be more than ashamed of how low you've fallen."

"Ko, I—" Shisui starts.

"Shut it," Ko growls, "Whatever you did to her I will _never_ forgive you for."

Gai watches the three Jōnin for a moment before he calls out an order, "Asuma, Ko, Kurenai, bring Kosari, Shisui, and the ANBU beside him back to Konoha. The rest of you help the other ANBU and Danzō. Let's head back to Konoha."


	14. Chapter 14

"What's…wrong?" Tsuji asks slowly, furrowing her brows as she looks into the younger boy's obsidian eyes. She looks over out of the corner of her eye and sees Toyo moving his spoon in his miso soup back and forth; clearly trying to avoid having to talk with the kid he considers 'a black hole of misery and danger'. Tsuji never believed him, and still doesn't.

"Spill it," Korohi demands, "Why did you have information on Haruki and me? I saw you two give whatever other information you stole from Kumogakure to some old rogue shinobi. If you don't tell me, I'll report you to Raikage-sama when we get back to Kumogakure and laugh as you two get tried for treason and killed."

"That's…" Tsuji starts, finding herself cornered by his dark, abysmal eyes.

"Leave it," Toyo's matching obsidian eyes flit up and glare harshly, "Damn hypocrite. You have information on more than just our village's Genin. Don't act like we don't know; you suck at infiltration."

"W-what—" Korohi's face begins to redden, furious.

"And don't get me started on the alliance you made with that Uchiha boy," Toyo says quietly as he fishes out the tofu from his soup and places it in Tsuji's bowl.

"Alliance?" Tsuji's eyes turn just as cold as her brother's, "Korohi, why didn't you ask us? You can't make decisions for us like that. I don't like pulling this card, but we are four years your seniors."

"Don't patronize me," Korohi snaps, "I got more information yesterday! Here," he shoves some papers at the two. Toyo lifts his gaze from his bowl to the papers and then looks up carefully at his sister.

"Team 7: Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata, and Uzumaki Naruto. Led by Kosari," Tsuji reads aloud.

"Are you an idiot?" Toyo asks with a sneer, "Honestly."

"What do you mean?" Korohi growls.

"I'm talking about how you not only got us involved with an Uzumaki," Toyo's voice begins to rise with anger, "A Hyūga, who will certainly like us Kumogakure shinobi quite a bit," he stands from his seat and his eyes burn holes in Korohi, "And to top it all off, a damn, _fucking_ , Uchiha! Don't you understand a thing about how dangerous they are?!"

"Toyo," Tsuji snaps, "Sit down."

"Like hell I am! I'm tired of this brat here acting like he's the one calling the shots!" Toyo turns his gaze to his sister, "Aren't you!?"

"That's not what I mean," Tsuji nervously glances over to the elderly man staring with a surprised look at Toyo, "Please, Toyo."

She reaches out to grab his arm and pull him down, but he swats her hand away and grabs Korohi's collar from across the table in the café, "Answer me, Korohi. Don't you understand how dangerous Uchiha are?"

Korohi rolls his eyes dramatically, "I clearly don't. Maybe you could ask this nice Uchiha man right here."

"What Uchiha—" Toyo looks over and sees a man with unkempt, grey hair staring at him. His yukata is a blue color with the Uchiha crest stitched on his shoulders and in a large motif on his back. Toyo visibly pales before gathering his composure, "Good morning, sir."

The man nods slightly before looking at Korohi. He studies Korohi for a moment before handing him a scroll. Korohi reluctantly takes it, "Who're you?"

The man neatly writes on a napkin: _Uchiha Kagami._

Before Korohi can get another word in, a man with bags under eyes that are glazed with some sort of grief approaches the Uchiha patriarch. Kagami looks at the troubled Jōnin and purses his lips when he sees the blood on his vest. The young man, a Hyūga takes one look at Kagami before bowing his head, "Hokage-sama wishes to see you."

* * *

The moment Kagami walks through several hallways, doors, and frigid air; he has a feeling that something isn't right. The Jōnin that had brought him to the Hokage tower in the first place had long abandoned him at the second doorway of the basement. Every hallway, there was a new ANBU who escorted him until he ended up walking a few alone. His eyes turn a fiery red color and he sees several chakra signatures ahead. He'd only been down here once or twice and it always resulted in someone's death. It was never a pretty one, either. Murders here was always slow, drawn-out, and meant to leech out every drop of traitorous information out of the shinobi, whose death certificate was already signed by the Hokage.

When he arrives at the last hallway after providing his chakra and a special set of seals, there is one last ANBU. At first glance, he sees no difference to the others before, but after looking critically at the ANBU, he sees it's a new Black Ops captain.

"Good morning, Kagami-sama," he says formally, "Hokage-sama and his other advisors are eagerly awaiting your arrival."

Kagami quickly signs in ANBU code, 'What happened to the other head of Black Ops?'

The ANBU stiffens slightly, 'Please follow me.'

Kagami's sharingan eyes bore holes into the back of the man's head. The bird mask gives him chills and he can't stop the tendrils of fear from squeezing his heart. With each step closer, he grows more and more nauseous. His heart rate makes him feel as if his heart will leap out of his chest, but at the same time he feels that it's probably better if he just died before knowing what Hiruzen wants.

The ANBU opens the door after several complicated seals. He holds the door open for the man, who lowers his eyes when he sees the room. From the floor, green light glows brightly but is quickly eaten up by the remaining darkness in the room. Hiruzen turns and an eerie light lights up his face. Kagami places a fist over his mouth to keep the bile in. Behind him, Danzō is as stony as ever, but exudes an aura of smugness. At first, Kagami can't fathom why; the two never really talked, but upon looking at the green light, the seals that it shines from, and the reason why the lights shine in the first place, he understands. He takes a tentative step forward towards the shinobi restrained by the seals that wrap around arms and legs and neck, keeping her bound to the ground facedown. A blindfold covers her eyes, but Kagami can tell she's looking right at him, out of the corner of her eye. She says nothing, despite nothing hindering her from doing so.

"She won't talk," Jiraiya says gruffly, "No matter how much I let the seals burn her skin, she won't say a word aside from the sound of her gritting her teeth. I tried looking through Minato's books and scrolls of sealing, but I found nothing as intricate as this. And, nothing involving a blood contract like this."

"Kagami, can you decipher this?" Hiruzen asks.

Kagami's eyes sweep the room and then he sees it. Bound to the wall with chakra restraints stuck to their skin are his two boys. When he lays eyes on Nagadachi and Shisui, all he sees are little toddlers running around with birthday cake on their face and then Genin who cut themselves on kunai they aren't even holding and the look of pure elation at freedom in his older son's eyes when he fled from Fugaku's grasp. He pushes down a smile when he remembers Shisui's wedding day. _What a good kid._

He slowly walks over to his younger son, who eyes him warily and cryptically. Kagami stands eye to eye with his son before narrowing his eyes dangerously. Shisui keeps his face neutral but gasps in shock when Kagami slaps him across the face, hard. The sound reverberates off the walls and the shinobi restrained within the green light squeezes her eyes shut, as if that would stop any sound from reaching her ears. Something wet hits his feet and Shisui looks up in shock when he sees his father, crying. He'd never, ever seen his father cry. Not even when Nagadachi left. He can read what his father's lips mouth, and he wishes more than anything that he can't. But, he does: _How dare you bring Kosari into your mess! She worked so hard for our clan and this is how you treat the woman that looked after Shirusu and Yūko on the night of the Massacre?!_

Then, Kagami sucker punches Shisui so hard he hears a rib break. Shisui pants shallowly as Nagadachi keeps silent. As always. Blood drips down onto the floor and Shisui coughs wetly.

Although a henge would work to restore his ability to speak and to have a tongue again, he refrains from doing so.

"Kagami?" Hiruzen asks after Kagami breaks almost all of the toes in Shisui's feet, "Will you help decipher this?"

Kagami turns away from his son and walks over to the Hatake. He looks over the ink with his sharingan and closes his eyes. _Just what is Shisui thinking? I think all the praise and fame got to his head. But no matter how much I want to kill him right now…I can't. He's stupid and he hasn't realized that yet._

Kagami stands and turns to Hiruzen, who now stands behind him, "Could you decipher it?"

Kagami looks at his son and glares harshly, 'Yes. This is a seal fashioned by the Uchiha clan. Jiraiya is right; this is a blood contract. This contract was first created to use corpses as soldiers in war on a large scale. In a way, this seal is similar to a summoning contract because it can be used over long distances. Simply put, this seal is a contract of liege and servant. The person whose blood and chakra are applied or mixed into the ink of this seal will give orders after going through several hand seals, and the person who receives this seal is the one who carries out orders. I had believed this seal was simply one person giving out orders to as many people bear this seal, but apparently this seal can be shared between people, lieges. In addition—'

"T-tou-san…" Shisui says in pure disbelief, "You traitor!"

Nagadachi looks on with mild disgust. _While the liege or lieges are beyond disgraceful, I never knew Tou-san would break clan rules and talk about that forbidden seal. I'm not protecting him when Shisui gets his clan-loving hands on him._

'In addition, as every seal and jutsu has a downside, so does this one. This seal draws upon a large amount of chakra. Corpses must be outfitted with some chakra for the seal to work and living people bearing this seal must be careful to carry out orders, usually quick assassinations, with as little chakra as possible,' Kagami says.

 _So this is why you honed your taijutsu so much,_ Danzō thinks as he looks down at his former agent. _But…that doesn't explain why since Shisui had attacked you five years ago you could freely use your chakra. Had the seal been deactivated then and now it's reactivated? This doesn't make sense._

"This doesn't make very much sense," Hiruzen says, "Why is it that she was able to use her chakra freely after the Uchiha Massacre? Five years has passed since then. Kagami, does this seal deactivate after some interval of time?"

'It deactivates when the liege dies,' Kagami signs.

"And who was the liege then?" Danzō asks, "I'm having a hard time believing it's Shisui; she isn't a careless shinobi and if she knew that the seal was still active she wouldn't have been so liberal with her chakra use. To me, when she attacked me, it seemed as if she too was surprised that she suddenly appeared where Shisui was in the forest. I think the seal may have been reactivated."

'That's likely,' Kagami says, 'The liege was Fugaku. After he died, I could no longer sense his chakra permeating the seal.'

"And who is the liege now, then?" Danzō eyes Shisui warily.

"No way…" Shisui mutters under his breath, "That bastard…"

Kagami clenches a fist in his pocket, 'Itachi, mainly, and there's a trace of Shisui's chakra and blood.'

Danzō scowls, "I hadn't sensed Itachi's presence within the forest. And, Shisui hadn't formed any seals. Shisui's mentor was Uzumaki Kushina; could she have taught him a way to override seals?"

'It's not that so much as it is that the placement of Shisui's blood. It seems…right here,' Kagami lightly pokes Kosari's back where some part of the seal is, 'Is where the seal might've had a loophole. I'll have to look into this, but from what I can guess is that perhaps if the liege is in a situation in which his life is threatened, seals are unnecessary. However, the only people who would really know are the ones who reactivated the seal.'

"Itachi, presumably," Hiruzen says, "And Shisui."

"Is there a way to get this seal off?" Danzō asks, "Not only is this a danger to her life, but a danger to the village. Itachi could simply form the seal anywhere and have her destroy the village without being able to stop herself. And with that stunt she pulled with controlling my blood, I doubt she'll be easily stopped without being killed first."

"Are you threatening to kill her, you sick bastard?" Shisui demands, "Like that'll happen!"

'The seal can be taken off permanently if the caster removes it,' Kagami continues.

Jiraiya cups his chin, "Just why was this seal placed on her in the first place?"

Kagami's eyes become dim with sorrow, 'I'm afraid that is none of my business.'

Jiraiya glances over at Shisui and narrows his eyes at Shisui's emotional display. _Maybe. Just maybe._

"Hiruzen, even though it's clear that Kosari has no wish to harm this village or any of its citizens, she cannot be left alone. Someone must be around to stop her before she acts upon the wishes of Itachi or Shisui and annihilates the village. I believe letting her reenter Black Ops is a wise choice," Danzō says, "She'll be under my careful eye."

Hiruzen scowls, "No. We still haven't addressed how she had used your blood to try to kill you."

Hiruzen clenches a fist and the seals that bind her body glow an orange color as her skin burns a bright red burning color. The seals slowly turn a brighter color and a small, shallow gasp escapes her lips as her fists clench and unclench over and over in agony.

"Hokage!" Shisui screams, "Leave her alone!"

"What, you have some explanation regarding her controlling of Danzō and the ANBU's blood?" Hiruzen asks, his tone mocking. Shisui's blood boils. _He's enjoying this!_

Shisui glares hatefully and he opens his mouth to say something, but Kosari beats him to it, "I…I'll talk."

"Finally," Jiraiya says, exasperated. Hiruzen unclenches his fists.

Kosari inhales and exhales deeply and her body still shudders with pain. Yet, she begins, "I normally tell this story with my teammates having been the heroes. It's easier to say because that's how they remember this. During my Chūnin Exams, my teammates had quickly wasted their chakra with their kekkei genkai. At that time, I had even less chakra than I do now and preserved as much as I could. However, that became impossible when my teammates succumbed to severely depleted chakra reserves and high temperatures. I was left alone to defend them, make traps, and try to use the high humidity to my advantage to gather enough water. Then, as luck would have it, we were ambushed. My teammates were separated from me. I was surrounded by seven other shinobi and quickly outmatched. However, I had managed to nick all of them. Their blood dripped down and seeped into the ground. As my consciousness faded in and out and I began to lose more and more blood, all I could think about was just how much blood was around me. And how much water was around me. I pulled out the senbon from my hands and pressed my hands together. The color in their faces drained, they screamed, their bodies quivered, and then they exploded. It rained blood and I was covered in it. After that, I passed out. I had tried not to think about it after that, and only confided in one person what truly happened. To everyone else, to my teammates, to my brother, I told them that my teammates had miraculously woken up and saved me. Yet…to this day I believe my sensei when she told me that this must be a kekkei genkai. I never told my teammates this; I wouldn't want them to feel bad that they weren't special anymore. Right, Shisui?"

Shisui blinks slowly in shock, "No…you passed out and then I…"

"You can search through my memories, Hokage-sama," Kosari sighs in defeat, "But, to verify my belief that I must harbor this awful kekkei genkai, you would have to find my father."

* * *

"Listen," he leans a hand against the wall and looks into her eyes, "I'm sorry about—"

"I get it," Kosari snaps back, "You don't trust me. Especially after something I've tried to keep under wraps was just exposed. Soon enough all of my superiors will know about this. I'm useless now. And—"

"I don't care about that," he says sharply and then sighs, "If it makes you feel any better, Sarutobi-sensei has had much lower points in his life than you. I'm sure you still have more events in your life you'd rather forget, but believe me: he's had a rougher time than most. At least you got to meet your parents, Kosari."

She bites her lip at the image of her mother and then looks back at him with irritation, "What do you want?"

"Let's get some drinks," Jiraiya says. "I'll pay, promise."

The look in his eyes, as Kosari notes, doesn't leave room for a no. She sighs and goes along with him.

At a seedy bar, she pours him a cupful of sake and then drinks straight from the bottle until it's all gone. He lets out a low whistle, "Not even Tsunade does that. You must have an impressive tolerance for this stuff."

She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, "I guess. What did you want to talk about? I'll try not to lie."

He laughs, "Somehow that's even less convincing." Jiraiya takes a bite of some sort of fried food and looks into her cold, killer eyes, "Why do you have this seal? What's it called, anyway?"

"Seijō," Kosari says, "It's called Seijō."

Jiraiya leans in eagerly, "And?"

"And?" Kosari arches a brow, "What?"

He sighs, "I'll repeat it: why do you have this seal?"

Kosari's eyes become distant. She reaches for another bottle and takes a small sip before pursing her lips. She shakes her head, "Why are you so interested? Why all of a sudden are you digging into a Hatake's life? Don't you have more interesting things to do?"

His face becomes serious, "This isn't about you," he adds a bit of disdain to get her attention. She eyes him warily, "It's about the entire village's security. I don't know what kind of jutsu you wield, what your skillset is, or much of anything about you, but I feel that if I know why you have this seal I can try to outwit those Uchiha and think of a way to get it off."

Kosari swirls the sake in the bottle before setting it down on the table, "I'm an unknown entity still, huh? That's good. I'd rather keep it that way."  
"Are you implying you don't intend to tell me?" Jiraiya asks, lacing his fingers together neatly.

"Of course I won't tell you," Kosari smirks, "I'm not going to ask how your parents died and I don't owe you anything. Besides," she snatches the bottle from him, "You let Kakashi die, didn't you?"

He glares harshly and the chopsticks in his hands splinter.

Then she laughs once, "Oh, sorry. Did I hit a nerve?"

"Stop being so selfish," he growls, "You're a dangerous weapon. You need to tell me," his voice grows quieter, "Or I'll have to squeeze it out of you."  
Her jovial façade falls instantly. The air grows cold and several people around the two shinobi leave quickly. Kosari's face falls into a dark one, "I'm not telling a damn thing to you. You dare call me selfish? You're selfish and arrogant if you think that only you can protect this village. You must think you're some chosen hero, don't you?"

Pure rage shines in the Sannin's eyes. Kosari stands and slams down more than enough to pay for the bill. Jiraiya grits his teeth, "Where do you think you're going?"

"Home," Kosari says firmly, "I have no reason to tell you anything. I don't trust you. If you're so invested in Konoha's security, you should be more focused on the most hazardous event to Konoha's safety of the year: the Chūnin Exams, and not some nameless Jōnin."

Before she can hear Jiraiya's angry response, she disappears in a black blur.

* * *

"Sorry," he sighs loudly as he closes the door behind him. Hiruzen turns around in his chair and gives him a dark look.

Jiraiya always hated that dark, menacing look Hiruzen wore sometimes. _On our first B-Rank mission, he slaughtered everyone with that look. Orochimaru and Tsunade didn't seem afraid at all, but I…_ "Sorry, really."

"Clearly you're not," Hiruzen's voice is quiet, full of cold rage, "If you were sorry, you wouldn't show your face here. I want answers. I was hoping you'd use your genjutsu on her and get some real facts out of her. Today has been a real test on my patience, Jiraiya," his voice drips with anger at his student's name, "I might not be an expert on seals, but according to the ANBU, her skin became covered in black markings. That would only happen if she has more than one seal being used at the same time. Danzō won't talk and slinks back into ANBU Black Ops barracks like a coward. I know she served as his top agent," he takes a drag from his pipe, "Kagami says he's busy with Sasuke and doesn't have time to explain just what sort of relation she has with his clan. I went down to the cells and interrogated Shisui until I was certain there was no way to get all his blood from staining the walls. All he did was just curse me and vowed to respect her, 'unlike me', he said. If that killer doesn't die tonight, I'll be impressed. But," he takes another drag, "For you, my last hope, to come here, empty-handed…"

The air becomes much, much colder. Jiraiya finds breathing more and more difficult with each passing second.

"Is beyond disgraceful."

"S-sensei…" Jiraiya chokes out, "I…!"

"You'll what?" Hiruzen asks, his voice level.

"I'll…get…answers…" Jiraiya says in a whisper, barely able to suck air into his burning lungs.

"Good," the air lifts and Jiraiya hits the floor, coughing and wheezing, "And don't come back here until you do."

* * *

Usually, just hopping over a few buildings would serve as a quick way to get home. But, after drinking so quickly, Kosari supposes it would be best to take the scenic route, clear her head, and get her mind off of Jiraiya and the Seijō. She knows that she isn't drunk enough to pass out or vomit; after a month of Shisui's genjutsu in the hospital years ago with Kakashi not moving from her side, she had gone to every bar within the following month and drank enough sake to outdo Tsunade's records.

Along the longer, quiet route, the sun shines on the leaves and makes drops of water on the flowers shine. She turns her head to look into the greenery beside the path. A small pond glows with the few shafts of light hitting it, emphasizing the few lilies in the water. A couple birds soon fly into the water and fluff out their feathers and spread their wings, cleaning themselves.

A soft smile plays out on her lips, the first smile in a long time. She reaches for a few stale crackers in her pocket, and crumbles them roughly in her hands. She tosses it, and the birds quickly gather and pluck at the ground. Then, she turns on a heel and continues walking.

It isn't long before she hears something of a fight.

"…don't you understand?!"

"…hey…"

Kosari's smile fades and she quickly makes her way towards the sound. She rounds a corner and sees one boy throw another boy to the ground. A girl quickly catches the first boy and throws him to the ground as well. Kosari would've continued on her way, seeing the girl clearly had some handle on the situation, but the second boy launches himself at the first boy, his hand glowing with chakra.

Kosari catches the boy's fist with an equal amount of chakra to cancel out whatever he was planning to do. Her obsidian eyes stare down his fiery eyes and he glares, "Stay out of it."

"Fighting is prohibited before the Exams," Kosari says, "And you picked a bad person to stop your fight," she turns his body so fast the world becomes a blur of green and brown. She holds his arms against his back with one hand, keeps a knee on his back, and a kunai in the other hand.

"N-no, wait!" the girl cries out, "He didn't do anything wrong!"

Kosari waits patiently for the two silver-haired shinobi to gather themselves.

"Don't kid yourself, Tsuji," the boy pats his clothes to get the dust out, "Don't suck up to his shinobi just 'cause of how she looks."

Kosari sees the two weren't going to get anywhere, "Unless you want for me to disqualify your team from the Exams and go home immediately, you'll tell me why you were fighting."

Tsuji clears her throat. _She's giving us a chance. I'd better not screw this up._ "Earlier, my teammates got into a disagreement over a few things. This is just a continuation. Please—"

A senbon flies by and nicks her cheek, "Don't lie to me, please," Kosari says, "Do you want to go back to Kumo? I can personally escort you."

"Fine, fine," the boy scratches his bruised face, "Earlier, this morning, I found out that the guy you're keeping pinned down made an alliance with a Konoha team. I wouldn't have gotten so mad if he'd 1) asked us before dragging us into some risky alliance and 2) hadn't picked that team. Recklessly and without thinking about the consequences, he chose a team that had an Uzumaki—someone who I'm sure knows all about how Kumo destroyed his homeland—, a Hyūga—someone who I'm sure will want to get along with us Kumo shinobi and will completely disregard any past incidences—, and…" the boy scowls, "And an Uchiha, the most dangerous. I'd been trying to tell him just how dangerous Uchiha are and how much trouble you can avoid by not involving yourself with them, but he won't listen. You're a Konoha shinobi; surely you know more details than I do about the Uchiha Massacre."

Kosari's grip on the kunai tightens and the black-haired boy beneath her knee tenses, "You know _nothing_. Your reluctance may be a good thing when teaming up with any team in the Exams, but to stereotype my students into their clans is ridiculous. All you seem to have done is complaining and you haven't looked into even spying on your alliance members. From what little I've heard, I dare say that you have no interest in these Exams. If you've no interest, you shouldn't have come. Konoha will be safer without more foreign teams."  
"'My students'?" Tsuji parrots, " _You're_ Kosari?"

Kosari looks at them with no expression, "So have you done some research then?"

"Then that means—" Tsuji starts.

"Don't," Toyo warns in a low voice, " _She's not our target_."

Tsuji nods carefully, biting her lip to keep quiet.

"T-to some degree…" Tsuji answers with her eyes glued to the ground.

"You three have no idea, do you?" Kosari lets go of the boy beneath her, "You three want to know just how dangerous Uchiha can be?"  
Toyo's face lightens up a bit at that. _She believes me!_

"We don't need to know," the second boy with dark hair and dark eyes snaps, "Come on, let's go, Tsuji, Toyo."

The two siblings stay put, looking at him with a serious expression. He glares, "What?"

"You think you can just," Kosari sinks a punch into the boy's soft stomach, "Leave when you want to? You think you can just disrespect the shinobi who can bar you from ever competing in the Exams again? Don't you dare get on your high horse. You really picked a bad person today. I have no patience for brats like you. You should be thankful I'm being so kind and giving you so many chances."

The boy holds his stomach tightly, "…"

"You want to prove to him that Uchiha are dangerous? Fine," Kosari snaps, "Follow me."

The walk through the scenic route is cut short as Kosari walks through Konoha's busy streets. She doesn't look back to see if the three are following; she knows they won't run off. Their ability to compete rests in her hands and doing what she said may keep them in the Exams.

After a long series of rounding corners and walking through crowds of people, Kosari stops in a quiet area with no one around. She looks down and sees a grassy area where a part of the dense forest area begins.

"Do you know where we are?" Kosari asks, keeping her voice low.

"The forest to the west of the Uchiha compound," Tsuji says. Kosari arches a brow at her. "I-I memorized a map before coming here…"

"You're not wrong," Kosari says, "But here, on the night of the Uchiha Massacre, an ANBU was attacked by one of Konoha's most prized and strongest shinobi: Uchiha Shisui. He killed his children and burned the ANBU agent alive," Kosari's eyes harden as she stares at the ground, "That night, that ANBU came home early. She wasn't supposed to come back from a dangerous Assassination mission until the day after. She was so glad that she'd gotten home early that she sent a kage bunshin in her place to go report to her superiors her mission. The original went to the Uchiha compound and, as she was entrusted to do, cared for Shisui's children. That was the only reason she was able to grab them the moment screams began to echo through the compound as night fell. Uchiha Itachi and Shisui were quick, however. Itachi was left to slaughter his clan and burn his home while Shisui gave chase to the ANBU. She would've gotten away if she hadn't used a clone that took away half of her chakra. On any given day, Shisui had much more chakra than the ANBU, but even less chakra was a greater handicap. She went as fast as she could, disregarding the kunai sticking out of her. She couldn't look back; she was too focused on going forward. She couldn't counter with any jutsu because of the children she was holding tightly in her arms. Then, she hit the ground when flames engulfed her from all sides. She was expecting to continue her escape on foot, but it was not to be. Shisui quickly incapacitated her, stabbing her over and over, but made her watch him murder his children. As it is right now," Kosari squats and rubs a bit of dirt between her fingers, noting the spot where grass wouldn't grow, "That ANBU is dead. Another has taken her place."

"Tsuji, Toyo," the dark-haired boy says carefully, "Please. Let's go home."

"Not quite yet," Kosari says, "There's one more thing I'm going to say. While Shisui and Itachi are madmen, worthy of execution, Uchiha Sasuke is different. He was left alive with memories of his clan's destruction. He's hateful and wants nothing more than to destroy Itachi. In short, he's Konoha's ally. He has no reason to help the man that killed his parents and his clan. By default, he will help Konoha. He won't betray you. If he's agreed to you, Korohi," Kosari glances at him, "Then you should take that as his word, unbreakable."

"How do you know my name?" Korohi demands.

"I thought you wanted to leave," Kosari quips back, "It's fine. _You_ can go. I'd like a word with your teammates, however."

"Them?" Korohi looks at Tsuji and Toyo.

"Um…" Tsuji starts, uncomfortably, "I-I don't think I understand…"

"(What don't you understand?)" Kosari asks in the same tongue she'd spoken to Aiko in. Korohi's eyes widen, "What…"

Tsuji seems to relax slightly, "(So you do speak our language then. I was unsure if you were simply a shinobi with grey hair. But, yours is pure silver. You must be from the Royal Family, yes? You must be Lord Sakumo's daughter, yes? Though…you're not in any of our history textbooks…)"

"(Tsuji, don't assume things. She could be anyone)," Toyo chastises.

"(So that man is still alive?)" Kosari leans against a tree with her arms crossed, "(Why isn't he dead yet?)"

"(W-why would you want Lord Sakumo to be so? He's a kind man!)" Tsuji argues.

"He abandoned my brother and me!" Kosari snaps. Korohi stares in disbelief, "Abandon?"

"(He left us. Not that members of the Royal Guard could understand, though,)" Kosari eyes the black tattoo on their shoulders, exposed by their sleeveless shirts.

"(Please don't assume you know us, Lady Kosari,)" Toyo glares despite his formal tone, "(We're orphans. He took us in. He trained us. He taught us how shinobi speak. He gave us food and shelter. We owe our lives to him. It's just repaying a debt of a lifetime to devote ourselves to protecting him and our nation.)"

"(Tell me: why are you two even here? During the Third War, my father put up a barrier and forbade anyone to go out or come in. That shouldn't have been taken down. There should be no reason to send out any Hatake. You should just stay in your snowy land, far away from us shinobi.)"

"(Lady Kosari, are you unaware of anything?)" Tsuji's eyes widen, "(Haven't you heard? War will soon break out. The green-eyed Hatake plan to kill every black-eyed Hatake. They—")

"(While we can't rely on everything that we hear, it's true. We've received several reports about an increase in green-eyed people being jailed and hanged. They're starting to pose a threat to national security. As to why we're here, we're here because Lord Sakumo asked us to keep an eye on our teammate and that sharingan-wielder from Kumo as well,)" Toyo says.

"(That doesn't make sense,)" Kosari argues, "(When that killer Mikata broke the barrier and slaughtered all those Hatake, that was somewhat to end the fighting between the green-eyed and black-eyed Hatake. That was supposed to keep the peace. Why isn't Sakumo making use of Mikata's existence? Fear of a killer is supposed to…)" Kosari runs hands through her hair and stares incredulously at the ground.

* * *

Shisui coughs and wheezes when he finds himself on the roof of some building. He looks right and sees Nagadachi beside him, restrained still. He looks left and sees Madara looking at him with apathy, with Itachi standing on the rooftop's edge, looking into the distance, "I can't have you die yet, Shisui. And, with what Itachi found, neither can this brother of yours die either."

Shisui rubs his wrists, "So you thought you'd get us out of those cells? How kind."

"But, if he proves to be a problem, you're the one who kills him," Madara glances at Nagadachi, whose chakra is still suppressed. Nagadachi glares at Shisui, "I didn't sign up to be dragged into your screwed up life, Shisui. Let me die."

* * *

"With this," Kosari flips the coin-sized bug over her fingers over and over, staring at it, "I could get Nohara-san killed for treason."

 _Knock._

"But should I?"

 _Knock knock._

"What would happen if I did? Who would run the hospital? No one but her has enough experience. She hasn't shown any less devotion to helping sickly people before this, and even before the war."

 ** _Knock. Knock._**

"She's a criminal. She's helping an enemy of Konoha. But…" Kosari purses her lips, remembering when she'd trailed Rin. "That rebellion just makes my skin crawl. Any rebellion is bad, but if it's been stewing for this long…I can't let it slide. Even if it is probably closer to Kiri or Kumo than Konoha is."

"…need to talk…"

"And I've got to find Sakumo and Kakashi. And kill Shisui on the way there. There's no way I can sit around by a screen watching my Genin trip through the Finals."

Kosari grabs her bottle of sake and carefully opens the door, "What do you want?"

"Hound," Hawk bursts into her apartment, sending several alarm bells off in her head.

"H-hey! Don't just come in here! And how do you know where I live?" Kosari demands, brandishing her bottle.

"I found something out about your family," Hawk says quietly, taking a seat on her bed, "Hear me out."

Kosari looks at him harshly before putting her bottle down and crossing her arms.

"During the Third War, a shinobi defected, or rather, separated from her team. This shinobi was exposed to a powerful genjutsu that convinced her that a Hatake far away had killed her family. This shinobi was convinced and went to a snowy land to avenge her family, only to kill roughly a thousand people. At the same time, plans were being made to exterminate this shinobi, on the grounds of desertion. Her family was actually somewhere else, but were dressed in Iwa garb and sent to the west. There, the man that would become the Yondaime Hokage killed a thousand people, including her family. Her father, however, was in hiding. The Hokage told him that his clan had suffered a huge loss. This forced Sakumo to go after them. Then, Hiruzen accused Sakumo of not only the death of that shinobi but also the entire massacre, and then banished him for killing one of his own. This didn't change a thing about Sakumo's defection, which had happened years before, but gave him more reason not to come back to Konoha. Hiruzen was able to stamp 'traitor' in his file for not only defecting, but also for killing one of Konoha's shinobi in cold blood," Hawk looks at Kosari intently.

"Soon after, Danzō took an very concerning interest in the sharingan. He was vaguely aware of the Hatake clan and its supposed recluse existence. He suspected the Hatake clan must have some sort of strength, especially having seen Sakumo and Kakashi fight. He was looking into what would happen when Uchiha and Hatake blood met, and studied Kakashi intently. He easily brought him into ANBU and gave him more and more difficult missions, to test how far a Hatake could be pushed. Then, he watched you. You—"

"Get out," Kosari orders.

"Hiruzen doesn't want you to go back to Black Ops," Hawk says, "He wants you to be under his command to use as a way to kill Sakumo. Sakumo knows about what Hiruzen did and Hiruzen wants him silenced. Danzō wants to be Hokage, and killing Hiruzen will secure that. He'd originally planned to do so using Kakashi, but Jiraiya squashed that, probably per Hiruzen's order. Before that, he'd planned for Shisui to kill Danzō, but, apparently, with you directly under Danzō's command, that complicated things. On the other hand, Danzō wants you back in Black Ops to do just that. Hiruzen already told me about your…ability. Danzō plans to use Kagami to allow him to take control of your seal and kill Hiruzen. In the end, you're nothing but a tool to them.

"But here's the thing that confuses me: I looked into the shinobi records and found no Mikata. Mikata was the name of the shinobi that had been set up to kill thousands of people during the War."

"Hawk," Kosari's voice is calm, but edged with rage, "Why are all of you so interested in my father? There is nothing interesting about a man who left his own children to fend for themselves!"

"I found this scroll," Hawk holds it up.

Kosari slaps it out of his hand, "Who gives a damn?! The War is over! I'm under neither of their commands! Who are _you_ , anyway, to come here and have me relive something I never want to remember?!"

"What?" Hawk blinks under his mask, "Hound…"

"I'm not Hound!" Kosari barks.

"Then what are you? Who are you? Why are you still alive?!" Hawk challenges, grabbing her collar as his fingers glow with faint embers.

Lightning glows around her, "I'm Kosari! I'm alive because Shisui isn't dead yet and my brother is alive! I'm going to find Kakashi and Sakumo and stop the rebellion!"

"Good," Hawk grunts and roughly pushes her away.

Kosari grits her teeth and takes a swig from her bottle. She shakes her head at him, "Hawk you'll get killed if you stay here. In Konoha, I mean."

Hawk watches her as she grabs a few scrolls from her shelf and then a small box from underneath her bed and some clothes and places it all in a bag and zips it up. She eyes a small yellow bottle, hesitates, and then stuffs it in her pocket, "I'm drunk, and I'll regret this…but why not come with me? By hearing this, we're both traitors. I've got to leave this place if I'm to find Kakashi. And, Hiruzen doesn't trust me after being shown the power that Itachi and Shisui have over me. I'm like a bomb, waiting to go off."

She takes another swig, "Well?"

Hawk sighs, "I suppose I've no choice but to obey you, Hound-taichō."


End file.
